Tales of the Cooper Clan - Rioichi
by supertinagirl6
Summary: Book one of my story series Tales of the Cooper Clan. Explore the story of Rioichi's origins as he begins the the path of becoming not onlt a sushi chef, but also one of the greatest ninja's in history. Features RioichixOC
1. Night of Fate

Tales of the Cooper Clan - Rioichi

Chapter 1

A young child named Rioichi dug his fingers into the palms of his hands as he lay on his futon, listening to his mother and father talking. Usually their discussions would be about how his mother was a thief, in fact her entire family line was thieves, but they were thieves of honor, only stealing from other thieves. Rioichi's mother Ling came from China, having stealing from wicked and corrupted army generals, she came to Japan to settle down, feeling she had fulfilled her purpose as a thief. She eventually met and married a red panda raccoon named Daichi. Though Rioichi could tell by the tone of his mother's voice that she wasn't discussing about her past as a thief, he tried to focus on her words she quietly muttered from her mouth, but the only thing he could make out was the word hunted and prey. At that moment he heard footsteps, he brown eyes glanced upward to see a red panda raccoon with white fur, wearing a red Chinese dress with a slit on the side to provide mobility, black pants, blue boots, and a blue mask over her eyes, that was his mother. Ling kneeled down to Rioichi, gently stroking his head, even though she was smiling there was sadness in her brown eyes.

"Rioichi I need you to stay inside and don't let yourself be seen, don't worry your father will still be here. You may here scary things, but whatever you do don't reveal yourself, hide in the shadows like a ninja." she said.

Rioichu said nothing as he nodded his head in agreement, it was then he noticed his mother had her sword, a silver blade with a brown handle shaped like a C, he knew she had never laid hands on it ever since she quit thieving unless it was an emergency. Though he did not question why she had, feeling that she wouldn't tell him either way. Without another word, Ling stood up and left the house, remembering what she told him Rioichi crawled in the shadows, listening to the silence of the night. Ling glanced back at her home, letting out a sigh.

"Please let him be alright." she whispered as a dark shadow flew over her.

She glared up at the night sky, seeing a giant mechanical owl fly towards her. She clenched her teeth and pulled out her sword. The owl tried to snatch her up in his deadly talons, but she dodged and swung her sword, trying to hit the areas where flesh could be seen. This only enraged the mechanical owl as he snapped his beak at the raccoon. Ling managed to scale up a tree and throw small throwing knives at the mechanical owl, aiming for his weak points. The knives sunk into what little flesh the owl had causing him to shriek in pain. Without warning he swooped toward Ling, the female raccoon tried to dodge, but she find herself snatched up in the mechanical owl's talons. She screamed in pain as the talons squeezed her body tightly, crushing and breaking her bones. She felt warm blood pour down the side of her body. In an attempt to free herself, she began stabbing her sword into the areas of flesh that remained on the owl, watching as her sword being coated in crimson blood. The owl narrowed his eyes at the raccoon, digging his talons deeper, Ling cried at in pain, trying to force her body to continue fighting. Her sword slipped from her grip and fell to the ground, she found herself staring into red glowing eyes full of hate. Without a word she closed her eyes, accepting her fate. Tears streaked down Rioichi's face as he heard his mother's cries and screams of anguish till finally there was nothing, but the silence of the night and the sound of flapping wings.

The next morning Rioichi slowly opened his eyes, shielding his hand in front of his face to prevent being blinded by the morning sun. He barely slept at all that night, he remained in the shadows, the sounds of his mother's screams burned deep into his memory. He slowly stood up from his hiding place, listening for any sounds, he left his room to see his father kneeling on the ground. Daichi clenched his hands tightly around Ling's sword covered in blood, he was sobbing quietly.

"Okasan?" Rioichi spoke up.

Daichi's ears twitched when he heard his son's voice. He opened his eyes and turned toward Rioichi. Daichi saw the young raccoon's eyes glancing down at the sword that belonged to his mother, but Daichi didn't have the heart to tell his own son why Ling was slain. Silently he stood up and walked up to Rioichi.

"Gather your things. We must leave this place." his father commanded.

Rioichi did not ask, knowing it was unwise to question his father. He went into his room and swiftly gathered up his things, when he finished he walked outside to see his father waiting for him. Daichi nodded his head toward his son, but they left he stabbed his wife's sword into ground in front of the former home.

"Fair well Ling." he muttered under his breath.

Over the days as they traveled, Rioichi and his father barely spoke to each other, neither wanting to bring up the event that happened that fateful night. Rioichi couldn't get his mother's face out of his mind, he remembered the sadness he saw in her eyes before she left to fight the mysterious enemy.

"If only I knew why she was killed and who did it." he thought.

For a while Daichi and Rioichi still barely spoke to each other, until finally one night. They had stopped to rest for the night, both raccoons silently staring at the flames of their camp fire. Daichi silently prodded the flames with his stick, looking over at his son. He thought about how Rioichi was seven and Ling was planning to actually to start training him as a thief when he turned eight, but now with Ling dead there was no one to teach the young raccoon the thieving ways of the Cooper family. A part of Daichi felt glad that his son wouldn't become a thief, believing he would be safe from the being that took Ling's life, but he also knew that by doing this he's actually dishonoring Ling and her family line. He glanced over to his pack and sighed, he reached over and grabbed the pack.

"Rioichi there was something you're mother wanted to give you." Daichi said.

Rioichi watched as his father pulled out a large book that had the symbol of a raccoon face and was titled "Theivius Raccoonus."

"This book in my hands has been passed down in your mother's family." Daichi started, "Your ancestors each wrote a page in this book about the new techniques they developed as a thief. Your mother even has a page in the book. The book was her's and now it's your's."

Rioichi stared in shock as his father handed him the book, he ran his fingers across the cover, he had no idea his mother wanted him to follow in the footsteps of her and his ancestors. His hands tightened slightly around the book as he closed his eyes.

"I'm honored, but I don't think I'm ready yet." Rioichi said.

His eyes snapped open when he felt his father's hand lay on his shoulder.

"I understand, whenever you are ready." Daichi replied.

Rioichi nodded before glancing down at the ancient book again, he was not ready to be a thief, but was willing to wait to see what secrets lie in the book.

The next day Rioichi and Daichi arrived in a small village. Daichi figured that village was the best place to live, hoping that the mountains kept his son hidden from certain enemies. As they walked through the village Rioichi studied every single detail of the village, from the mountain tops to the water springs, wanting to be aware of his surroundings. The two raccoons were eventually approached by a yellow marten with brown eyes, wearing a brown kimono and a red coat.

"Ah konnicihwa travelers, I am Nobuo. What brings you two to our village?" he asked with a bow.

Daichi and his son bowed before he replied "I am Daichi and this is my son Rioichi. We have been seeking out a home, do you know if we are able to stay here?"

Nobuo grinned as he began to laugh, confusing the two raccoons.

"Well I am the village the elder so of course I can work something out. Come, we'll continue our discussion in my home. I'll have Madame Geisha send over a couple of geisha." he said.

Both Daichi and Rioichi followed Nobuo to which home which was a shinden-zukuri, a type of house built for the aristocratic society. Rioichi couldn't help, but let his eyes take in the surroundings, he never expected to see a home with long hallways that were surrounded by elegant gardens. At that moment something caught his attention, he stopped in his tracks seeing a female red panda raccoon kneeling near the fish pond. Her dark black hair dangled in front of her face as she struggled to keep the sleeves of her teal kimono pulled up so they wouldn't dip in the water. Rioichi seemed interested in the young raccoon, wondering why a girl at the age of seven would be wearing such elegant clothes. That was when the female raccoon lifted up her head, making eye contact with Rioichi. The two raccoons stared at each other in curiosity, interested in the other. Though due to her not paying attention the female raccoon leaned too far forward and fell into the large pond. Without any seconds thoughts Rioichi jumped into the water after her, when he reached her he wrapped his arms around her waist and pulled her out of the water. The female raccoon coughed up water since her mouth was open when she fell in. To Rioichi's surprise the female raccoon shoved him away from her. His surprised eyes stared into her brown ones that were glaring at him.

"I can't believe you made me fall in the water!" she yelled as she tried to wring out her hair.

"Well that isn't something very nice to say to the person that helped you." Rioichi replied with a frown as he crossed his arms.

The female raccoon didn't say a word as she rapidly shook her hair to get it dry. When she did this she ended up slinging water at Rioichi's face, earning a glare from him. When the female raccoon saw this glare she couldn't help, but giggle. She kept on giggling until she heard a male voice calling out for someone, Rioichi knew that was the voice of his father calling for him. As he started to walk away the female raccoon grabbed him by his arm, stopping him in his tracks.

"You know it's rude not to at least say your name." she said, placing a hand on her hip.

"Rioichi, and your's?" he asked with a sigh.

The female raccoon smiled as she answered "Asami."

Rioichi's eyes widen for a second, he didn't know why, but hearing her name made him a little happy. After hearing Diachi call out for his son again Asami let go of the male raccoon's arm. She gave him a small wave before running off, leaving a dripping trail of water from her soaking wet kimono behind her. Rioichi stared for a but in the direction Asami left before running off to find his father.

Rioichi ran as fast as he could, moving swiftly through the long hallways of the shinden-zukuri. He studied every little detail of the home as he continued moving at swift speeds, he almost felt like his mother's spirit was running along side with him, being as swift as he is. He reached the end of the hallway to see his father and Nobuo, though what caught his attention was the seven year-old male skunk wearing a green shirt, yellow pants, and black boots, kneeling in the floor. Nobuo looked up, thrilled to see Rioichi had entered the room.

"Ah Rioichi your father was just telling me about you, glad you could make it. Oh I would like you to meet my nephew Kenta Le Paradox." the old marten said.

The young raccoon bowed before kneeling on the ground next to his father, surprised that Kenta hadn't even glanced at him, as if the small skunk didn't want to look at him.

"My little sister is his mother." Nobuo told, "Of course his father refused to give up his last name, honestly I don't understand why the old skunk insisted on keeping that French name."

Kenta shot a glare at his uncle with his blue eyes before turning away once again, crossing his arms over his chest.

"Ah it seems the geisha have arrived!" Nobuo said in a joyful tone.

Three women wearing long beautiful kimonos with makeup on their faces and their hair tied up into buns entered the room, carrying trays of tea. Rioichi let out a sigh of boredom, not understanding why the women dressed up so nicely, he had never seen his mother dress up like the geisha so he assumed it wasn't normal. Behind the women entered a young girl that was a maiko, when Rioichi saw the maiko he froze in shock because that maiko was no other than Asami. The young raccoon changed her appearance from when he last saw her, she now had her face plastered in white makeup with her lips painted red, her long black hair was tied up in a bun with two ivory chopsticks sticking out of it. At first she didn't notice Rioichi as she and the three geisha began to serve tea, but when she turned to serve him she stared with wide eyes. Rioichi knew she was surprised as much as he was, he hadn't expected to see her so soon. Though the shock didn't last long, Rioichi didn't have time to see the growing smirk on Asami's face. She picked up the tea pot and poured the hot tea on his head. Rioichi yelled in pain as he started shaking the scolding tea from his fur. Kenta had fallen backwards onto the floor, laughing his head off at the scene before him.

"Oh I'm sorry my grip slipped." she lied.

Asami grabbed a rag and began drying off Rioichi.

"Consider us even now." she giggled quietly as she continued to dry him off.

Kenta was laughing so hard that he could hardly breathe until Nobuo yanked him painfully by the tail. The black skunk yelled out in pain, glaring at his uncle who had his head turned the other direction, pretending he didn't do anything.

"If only otasama didn't forbid me from using my stench." Kenta grumbled as he sat back up.

Later that night Daichi and Rioichi had settled down in one of the village homes. Daichi took a job as a black smith, forging swords for the emperor's army. He hoped by throwing himself into his work he could forget about the fate that fell upon his wife Ling. It pained his heart whenever he thought of her, his hatred growing for the being that took Ling's life. He wanted revenge, but he knew he would be leaving Rioichi fatherless if he tried to, so he decided he would move on with his life and take care the only thing he had left of Ling. Rioichi was sitting on his futon, staring down at the Thievius Raccoonus that he held in his hands. Ever since his father gave it to him that night his curiosity about what was inside kept growing, making him more eager to know what was inside.

"Maybe one peek wouldn't hurt." he thought.

He flipped the book on it's side and slowly opened it up. His mouth slowly opened as he flipped through the pages of his family's history. He was in shock to discover he descended from an Egyptian named Slytunkhamen II who developed Shadow Power, a move that granted thieves invisibility, but only in the shadows. His interest grew more and more as he continued reading, he read about Salim Al Cooper who was his Arabian ancestor that developed the Cobra Climb and even read about Sir Galleth who was his Midevil British ancestor that developed the Crash Catapult technique. He kept scanning each of the pages, reading about each of the amazing feats as thieves of honor. Finally he came upon the last few pages that were written on before it continued on with blank pages. He fought back his tears as he stared down at the final pages, those pages were written by his mother. His brown eyes focused on the picture of her in her usual clothes, a smirk on her face as she circled around a guard at swift speeds, creating a small tornado.

Rioichi scanned down the page, reading about how his mother's greatest feat was stealing a jade samurai helmet from an army general named Feng Fox who had been trying to capture her for years. During her feat she ended up developing the technique called "Silent Obliteration", an attack that allowed a thief to take out guards swiftly and silently by encircling them until they are trapped in a small whirlwind. Rioichi stared at Ling's picture once more before closing the book with a sigh and laying down to go to sleep. Though he failed to see in his mother's picture that there was a dark silhouette of an owl, watching her with his red eyes full of hate.


	2. Fishing

Chapter 2

Five Years Later

Rioichi sat perched on a tree branch, studying every detail of the Thievius Raccoonus. The young twelve year-old raccoon still didn't believe he was ready to become a thief, but he decided he could at least study the book until he is ready. Over the years Rioichi has been noticing his family thief instincts developing, he had been studying details of his environment more frequently, whenever walking around he has the urge to move silently, he see edges of a wall he can stand on, and so on. He carefully flipped through the pages, reading about how Slytunkhamen II created the Cooper Vault where the family store their greatest treasures. Rioichi liked the idea of a family vault and hoped one day he would get to see the vault for himself. He kept reading until he heard a familiar voice, he glanced down to see Kenta Le Paradox with his arms crossed.

"Rioichi Cooper, I challenge you to a fight to prove who's the strongest!" Kenta yelled.

Rioichi groaned at this, ever since he met the skunk he was challenged to fights to prove who was the best. The older they got, the more frequent the challenges came. With a sigh he placed the Thievius Raccoonus in his bag, not wanting anyway to see it before jumping down from his perch on the tree branch. Without a word Kenta grabbed two bo staffs and tossed one of them to Rioichi, the skunk snarled in anger when he saw the raccoon catch the staff successfully. The two faced each other and bowed before lunging at each other. Their bo staffs clashed as each of their swings was stopped by block from the opponent. Kenta tightened his grip more tightly on the staff as he swung more ferociously. Rioichi took notice of this, having learned to study opponent's movements from his mother. Before Kenta would swing once more Rioichi ducked the attack and hit the skunk square on the head. Kenta stumbled backwards, holding his hand on where he had been hit before falling on the ground.

"There's something wrong with this stupid bo staff." Kenta muttered under his breath as he got back up.

"I don't get it Kenta, ever since we met you've been challenging me to fight, why are you so eager to beat me?" Rioichi asked out of curiosity.

The male skunk glared at the raccoon with his green eyes, angry at the fact Rioichi still hadn't realized why he always challenged him.

"None of your business Cooper!" Kenta hissed before storming off.

The male skunk refused to tell Rioichi that like him he also came from a family of thieves, though unlike the Coopers the Le Paradox Clan was actually terrible thieves. He clenched his fist the more he thought about his family line, he hated how his family had to dwell in the shadow of the Coopers, unable to actually beat the rival family. Even his father cared about the pride of the clan, going so far to force his wife to take the name of Le Paradox and even completing a task he forbids his wife and son to talk about. Kenta began thinking about the task his father had done, all he knows his father left late that night five years ago, saying that he was going to help a friend.

"Defeated by Rioichi again?" a voice asked.

Kenta snapped out of his thoughts and saw his friend Asami walking towards him. Asami had become friends with Kenta over the years because she was actually a rival with Rioichi, though her's was friendly unlike Kenta's who's was aggressive.

The male skunk crossed his arms and grumbled "Yes"

Asami laughed and laid her hand on her friend's back.

"Taking it hard aren't yeah? Come on Kenta you need to lighten up. Maybe one day you'll beat him though I don't understand why you keep fighting him." she said.

"It's complicated." Kenta muttered as he crossed his arms.

Asami grinned and to Kenta's surprise she pulled him into a hug, the male skunk figured that was the female raccoon's way of cheering him up. Unsure what to do he wrapped his hesitant arms around Asami and hugged her back, he was shocked that the simple action was actually making him feel better. With that Asami pulled away, grinning at her friend.

"Now don't be grouchy so much. Besides I plan to challenge Rioichi to my skill." she smirked.

Without a word Asmai walked away from Kenta, waving at him as she headed for Rioichi's home. Once there she smirked when she saw the young raccoon helping his father carry weapons to some shogun warriors. She quietly walked up behind Rioichi and tapped his shoulder, causing the male raccoon to turn around. His eyes widen in surprise when he saw her wearing her teal kimono with her hair down, he hadn't seen her like that since they were seven, usually she would have makeup plastered on her face and her hair up since when she would visit was after she finished her duties as a maiko.

"Hey Rioichi." she said with a grin.

Rioichi blinked a few times before replying "If you're looking for your boyfriend he stormed off earlier."

"Ha ha ha, very funny." Asami said in a sarcastic tone before stating, "You know good and well maiko and geisha are forbidden to fall in love."

"Yeah I know, it's just pretty fun to mess with you. So what are you doing here anyway?" he replied.

"Well I wanted to see if you're up to a fishing challenge, after all we all know I can catch more fish than you." she smirked.

Rioichi grinned at this, silently accepting Asami's challenge. While it was true Asami mainly had to fulfill her duties as a maiko whenever she had free time she would catch fish for Madame Geisha since they needed to serve meals to the customers. She learned that Rioichi was a fishermen himself and actually got competitive when it came down to who was the best fishermen. Asami and Rioichi walked down to the docks where a boat was waiting. Asami grabbed her fishing pole, smirking at the male raccoon next to her, she intended on winning their little challenge. Rioichi lay his fishing pole in the boat, untied the ropes, and pushed off the boat to open water. Once far enough the two threw their fishing lines into the water and sat back to back, waiting for the fish. Rioichi ran his thumb and index finger down the fishing line, feeling for the smallest bit of vibration, not only did it help him know the fish were biting, but it also increased his awareness skills, something he would need for when he finally becomes a thief. He glanced over at Asami who sat with her eyes closed and her ears twitching at every sound, Asami relied on sound rather than feeling when it came down to fishing.

At that moment both raccoons reacted when they felt the boat rock, Asami instinctively clung onto Rioichi without thinking. They both cautiously looked around, trying to figure what made the boat rock, just then the boat rock again except much more violent. Due to how violent the boat rocked Asami lost her grip and fell into the water. She coughed and sputtered as her arms splashed up and down in the water to keep her body afloat.

"Asami!" Rioichi screamed.

The female raccoon turned her head and to her horror she saw a fin of none other than a shark. She began screaming for help as she swam back the boat, trying to get out of the water. The shark sped toward the female raccoon, his eyes narrowed, ready to go in for the kill. Asami clung onto Rioichi's hands, but it was already to late. Rioichi body froze in fear when he heard Asami scream and the water around her changing into a crimson red, the shark had bit down on her leg. Asami cried and screamed as the shark continued sinking his teeth into her leg though that didn't stop her from releasing her death grip on Rioichi's hands. Rioichi stared at the female raccoon's horrified face, he knew he couldn't let her die, thinking fast he slipped one of his hands out of Asami's grip and grabbed a hold of the fishing pole. Using all his strength he jabbed in the pole into the shark's eye. The shark yelled in pain, causing him to let go of the female raccoon's leg. Asami whimpered in pain as Rioichi picked her up in his arms, fortunately she hadn't lost and part of her leg, but she was still losing a lot of blood.

The shark got over his pain and out of anger began slamming in the boat multiple times. Rioichi held Asmai closer to his body to keep her from falling into the water, his brown eyes frantically searched for an a way to escape the shark. Finally he managed to spot a rock spire above the water, but it was too far to jump to. Asami squeezed her eyes shut in pain and clenched her hand on Rioichi's shirt. Rioichi began remembering back to that night when his mother was killed.

"I may not have been able to save my mother, but I can at least save Asami." he thought.

Taking a deep breath he balanced on the tip of the boat, he took in long deep breaths as he focused on the rock spire. He closed his eyes, ignoring the boat's constant rocking from the shark slamming into it. He gathered up his courage, tightened his grip on Asami's body, before finally using all his leg strength to push off of the boat's tip. He soared over the water at great speed before finally landing on the rock spire.

"I did it, I will have to name that move later." he said before jumping from each rock spire to reach the shore.

Back on land Rioichi carefully laid Asami on the ground, not wanting to hurt her leg any further. Knowing he would need to stop the leg's bleeding he untied his sash and pulled off his shirt. He wrapped his shirt around Asami's leg and tied it up with his sash.

"There that should stop the bleeding while I take you back to the village." Rioichi said.

Asami laid her hand on Rioichi's bare chest, staring up weakly at him, her conscious struggling to stay awake due to the blood loss. She tried to tell him thank you, but the words couldn't escape her mouth. Rioichi ran his fingers through Asami's hair, trying to comfort her, as he did this he wondering if his mother looked just as weak and defenseless as Asami when she died. Quickly he shook his head, not wanting to picture his mother in such a state, he wanted to remember her before she died. Without a word he scooped up Asami in his arms, planning to take her back to the village so she can get taken care of. Asami snuggled her head into Rioichi's chest, her weakened state finding the warmth coming from his bare chest comforting, she finally closed her eyes and fell unconscious. Rioichi was unsure what to do when he saw Asami's head lying against his head, though he quickly decided to ignore this and get her back to the village. He made his way through the bamboo trees, ignoring the exhaustion trying to overwhelm his body, all that mattered to him was getting the unconscious raccoon in his arms to safety.

Once back at the village everyone was shocked when they saw Asami and began asking Rioichi what happened to her. The young male raccoon constantly explained to people what happened as he searched for the village doctor. Finally he spotted the doctor who was an old white crane wearing a gray kimono. Rioichi explained to him about how Asami was injured by a shark attacking her. Understanding the situation the doctor had Rioichi carry Asami to his home so he could tend to her wounds. When they reached the house, Rioichi laid Asami down on the futon as the doctor grab some herbs. The doctor grounded up the healing herbs to a cream and kneeled down next to Asami's body. He removed Rioichi's now blood covered shirt from Asami's injured leg and placed the cream on the wound, Asami whimpered in pain, clinging on the nearest thing which turned out to be Rioichi's arm. Rioichi clenched his teeth in pain as he felt the female raccoon's fingers dig into his arm, but he understood why she was doing it. After the doctor finished applying the cream he bandaged up Asami's leg.

"Alright that should do it, but she won't be able to walk for a while. She'll heal up in a few weeks." the doctor said.

Rioichi nodded his head before turning toward Asami's unconscious body. He wanted that the shark to pay for what he did, so he planned once Asami is better he was going after the shark and would kill it. Asami was unconscious for a few till finally she opened her brown eyes. She groaned as she tilted her head over seeing Rioichi sitting next to her, her face blushed red when she saw Rioichi still wasn't wearing his shirt due to the fact it was covered in blood. She saw him sigh in relief as he helped her sit up, she tried to move her injured leg, but yelped in pain when she did.

"Be careful, the doctor said you wouldn't be able to walk for a while." Rioichi warned.

The female raccoon frowned at this, though was glad she didn't lose her leg.

"Thank you Rioichi for saving me, that was a pretty unexpected finish to our challenge." Asami said with a small smile.

"Well I couldn't just let you die." Rioichi replied.

Asami nodded before glancing down at Rioichi's blood covered shirt, she began feeling bad he had to go through all that trouble for her. She wanted to return the favor somehow, that was when she got an idea. Without saying anything she pulled Rioichi into a hug, the male raccoon froze instantly, feeling odd feelings when he felt her hands on his bare back.

"Still thank you." she whispered before kissing him on the cheek.

Rioichi was silent for the longest time, not only did Asami just hug him, but she had also kissed him on the cheek, he had never expected taht from a rival. When Asami pulled away she laughed at Rioichi's face.

"Now don't get any ideas that was only a thank you kiss and hug, remember geisha and maiko are forbidden to fall in love." she stated.

"Of course, I knew that." Rioichi laughed as he rubbed the back of his neck.

Those next few weeks Asami had to walk on a cane until her leg healed. Madame Geisha told Asami not to come to the geisha house until she had fully healed, leaving Asami unsure what to do with her time. She didn't want to go fishing for a while, still horrified from getting attacked by a shark. She wanted to spend time with Kenta, but she noticed the skunk was bitter towards her ever since the incident, making her confused why her friend was treating her like that. She knew that only left one person and that was Rioichi.

"Could be interesting, I've barely talked to him." Asami said.

When she reached Rioichi's home she saw Daichi working away on weapons as usual, she felt bad for him, wondering what could drive himself to slave away in work, she hoped this was something she could find out during her time of healing. She looked around before finally spotting Rioichi in the tree, reading and old book. She had seen Rioichi reading the book before, but just like everyone else she was never able to find out what was written in the book since Rioichi would always hide it. Taking a deep breath she limped up to the tree.

"Too busy reading to talk?" she asked.

Rioichi glanced down at Asami from his book before hiding it away in his pack. Quickly he scaled down the tree, surprising the female raccoon at how fast he could climb.

"Asami what are you doing here?" Rioichi asked curiously.

"Well Madame Geisha isn't letting me fulfill my maiko duties till I heal and Kenta is being pretty aggressive toward me, so I decided to take this chance to final to get to know you. We met five years ago and I barely know anything about you." she replied.

Rioichi glanced back to the tree that held his pack with the Thievius Raccoonus inside, he was wanted to tell Asami about himself, but he wasn't ready to her about his lineage. He took a deep sigh, coming to a conclusion.

"Alright you can ask me any question just none about my mother." he replied.

"Why not?" Asami asked in confusion.

Rioichi closed his eyes, the painful memory of him hiding in the shadows and his mother's screams surfaced once more. He silently whimpered at the memory of the screams, the ones that haunt his nightmares every night.

Finally he opened his eyes and replied "It's too painful to talk about it."

Asami frowned at this answer, she wanted to know why when anyone seems to mention anything about a mother or wife Rioichi and Daichi would quickly dismiss the topic. She hoped that before she healed she would find out all she needed to know about Rioichi.


	3. Trust

Chapter 3

Asami sat silently as she watched Rioichi meditate, she had been talking to him the past few days, but it was only about usual stuff like the weather and how her leg was healing. She carefully studied Rioichi's facial features, her eyes tracing every detail of the male raccoon's stern an calm expression upon his face. She was almost tempted to reach out her hand and run her fingers down his chin, but she ignored this to end the silence between the two, Asami let out a small cough to gain Rioichi's attention. The male raccoon opened his brown eyes and adjusted himself form a meditation position to a normal sitting position before facing Asami.

"I'm sorry for interrupting your meditation, but I thought maybe could be the perfect time to finally start asking my questions about you." she said.

Rioichi nodded in understanding, even he believed it was time to start asking questions, of course he intended not to tell about the fact he came from a line of thieves or when his mother was killed. From the series of questions, Asami was amazed from learning Rioichi's backstory. She ended up discovering Daichi and Ling had met eachother in China under unexpected circumstances, the two had over time fell in love and got wed. Upon discovering that Ling was pregnant, Daichi suggested to her that they move to his homeland of Japan and live out their lives in Japan's mountains. Rioichi explained how his father said he was quite the handful shortly after he was born, always climbing all over things, refusing to sleep, Rioichi explained that his father told him that he got those traits from his mother. Asami blinked in confusion wondering why Rioichi would climb things and barely sleep like his mother, she wasn't able to piece together what Ling did for a living. He also told about how his father took care of him the most while his mother had the ten decay to take a long walk around the mountains. Rioichi refused to tell the female raccoon before him that he had been suspicious that his mother was taking those walks because she was searching for something or someone, he even began to wonder if the person that killed Ling was the one she looked for during all those walks.

Asami couldn't help, but let out a small giggle when Rioichi admitted he didn't grow up around other children which is why he stared at her when they first met.

"Huh that's pretty funny. I thought you were staring at me because I was cute or something." Asami said.

If Rioichi had been drinking water he would have spit it out that instant, the male raccoon coughed, beating his fist on his chest out of shock. He hadn't expected Asami to say anything like that, making him wonder why she had said it in the first place. When Asami saw this her face blushed red out of embarrassment she hadn't meant to make Rioichi shocked by such words.

"Anyway..." she started, wanting to change the subject, "What is that book I see you always reading? You never show it to anyone."

Rioichi slightly clenched his fist, he knew a question about the Thievius Raccoonus would show up sooner or later.

"It's a book my mother gave me, it's about my family history." he explained, planning not to go into detail about the book.

Asami frowned a bit at the answer given to her, it didn't explain to her why Rioichi was always hiding it from everyone, though she figured if she tried to press on about the subject that Rioichi would refuse to tell her anything else.

"Well since I know a bit about you, it's time you know a bit about me." she said.

She told Riochi how her mother was a geisha and ended up getting pregnant when one of the drunk customers had slept with her. Since it was against the law for geisha to sleep with anyone she convinced the man to marry her and sleep with her once more to hide the fact she broke the man had agreed, but once the task was done he had left her. When Asami was born her mother become a servant to the Le Paradox family. Rioichi groaned when he heard that family's name, remembering how Kenta Le Paradox would always challenge him, as if to prove something. Asami continued on about how she had met and befriended Kenta at the age of three, the two would always play together, but most of the time Kenta would be forced into combat training by his father. She never knew why Kenta's father would have him constantly train, all she knew was that he told him that he had to continue the family's legacy. When she was five Madame Geisha had came to her mother, she closed her eyes as she remembered the memory.

_Asami's mother was tending the flowers in the Le Paradon family's garden. She was busy at work until she saw a female rhino with her hair tied up in three black buns, white makeup and red blush powder on her face, and her lips painted red. She took carefully steps, trying not to get her teal kimono withe flower design on them dirty. Asami's mother's eyes widened when she saw the rhino approach her._

_"Ah Madame Geisha I wasn't expecting you." Asami's mother said with a bow._

_"Yes I know we haven't seen each other since you abandoned being a Geisha for marriage, though it seems that choice of yours was awful since your husband left you." Madame Geisha said._

_The female raccoon's ears flattened against her head, she didn't like to be reminded of her former husband._

_"Well anyway it has come to my attention you have a daughter and she is now five. Correct?" the rhino stated._

_Asami's mother's eyes snapped wide open in fear, she knew what Madame Geisha was saying. Without warning she threw herself down at rhino's feet, sobbing very loudly._

_"Please no! I beg of you Madame Geisha I wish for my daughter not to have the life I once had!" Asami's mother cried._

_Madame Geisha looked down at the female raccoon, unaffected by her tears._

_"You know the law, I shall start training your daughter immediately tomorrow. Madame Geisha said before turning around and leaving the garden._

_Asami's mother lowered her head into hands, crying loudly as her tears mixed with the mud on her hands, there was nothing she could do to prevent her daughter from becoming a maiko, for the law commanded that every girl at the age of five must become a maiko. Asami walked up to her mother, curious on why she was crying. To her surprise her mother pulled her into a hug, stroking her hair, telling her that everything was going to be okay._

Asami took in a deep breath once she had finished the memory and explained to Rioichi when Madame Geisha took her to become a maiko. Whenever she had to serve the customers sake she would fear that they would become drunk and she would end up in a situation similar to the one her mother got herself into. She continued on about how every day she had to serve food, sing, and dance for the men everyday, fearing the day when the minds get ideas for her once she gets older. Rioichi had no idea what to say. He remembered the day when he and his father first arrived to the village Nobuo had sent in some geisha to serve them, he had no idea what they had to go through. Though the one thing Asami did not want to tell Rioichi was the fate that awaited her when she finally turns twenty-one, the day of her mizuage.

"Is your mother still serving the Le Paradox family?" Rioichi asked.

The female raccoon silently nodded, though Rioichi felt bad for what Asami's mother had to go through, he was thankfully that Asami had a mother unlike him.

"You know Rioichi telling this has made me feel a little better, normally I hardly talk to anyone about these things, not even Kenta." Asami said.

"Really?!" he replied in shock.

Asami nodded before continuing "Your the first person I really could talk to. While Kenta is my friend I unfortunately could barely talk to him, he's always too focused with his training."

Rioichi had no idea that telling someone about your pain could actually create healing, making him wonder if he could tell Asami about his mother's death.

"She trusts me, the least I can do is trust her I guess." he thought to himself.

He took in a deep breath, grabbed a hold of Asami's hands.

"Asami you told me something that you trust me with, well I'm about to tell you something that I'm going to trust you with. Don't tell anyone or there will be consequences " Rioichi said.

The female raccoon froze, feeling Rioichi's hands tighten around hers when she didn't answer, finally she slowly nodded her head. Rioichi let out a sigh of relief before telling about the night his mother was killed. He told about how she had told him to hide and how he saw sadness in her eyes along with her sword in her hand. Asami turned pale when Rioichiu described how frightened he was when he began hearing the noises of flapping wings and his mother's struggles before finally being paralyzed in fear when he heard his mother's screams of death.

"I don't know why she was killed or who did it, but I will find out by following my family's footsteps. She must had been killed for being a Cooper, it must have been it or whoever killed my mother would have killed my father." Rioichi said.

"If your mother was killed because of her family line then why didn't they kill you as well?" Asami asked.

"The murderer must have not known that I existed, probably believed that my mother was childless. That is probably why my mother had me hid." he answered.

Asami had no idea how to react to Rioichi's confession, she knew that she wanted to know about what secrets Rioichi hid, but she never expected it to be so shocking that it would leave her speechless. She was awakened of her thoughts when she felt Rioichi's grip tighten around her hands.

"Asami you must tell no one of this, I can feel that my mother wouldn't want others to know of this." he said.

The female raccoon was silent for a while before replying "Alright Rioichi I will tell no one of this."

Rioichi smiled and pulled Asami into a hug. The female raccoon blushed at this action as she hugged him back.

"Thank you Asami and you're right, talking about it did make me feel a bit better." he said.

Asami silently gasped at this, finally she smiled and pulled him into a tighter hug, she expected to learn about him and she actually got more. In fact the more she thought about it she was actually developing a small crush on Rioichi, though she shook off the thought, remembering that maiko and geisha were forbidden to fall in love.

Kenta was at his home, viciously throwing metal throwing stars at a wooden pole, remembering how Rioichi had saved Asami from the shark.

"Rivals bah! If she was a true rival like me she would have knocked him the water so the shark would get him!" Kenta snarled as her threw another throwing star.

His green eyes watched as the small weapon soared the air before plunging deep into the wooden pole. He was angry at the fact what happened to Asami, so angry that he was actually bitter towards her. He believed that if she was strong enough she would never had fallen in the water or need saving in the first place.

"Why am I even friends with such a weakling!" he yelled as he threw his weapon again.

He reached down for more throwing stars, but saw his pack was empty. With a grumble he walked over to the wooden pole and roughly pulled out the throwing stars, ignoring the cuts he was creating on his hand. He remembered how when he first Asami he was desperate for a friend, he used to love those memories, but the older he got, the more he despised those memories. During his training with his father, not only was the skunk was taught martial arts, he was also taught what it meant to be a Le Paradox. He was taught that the Le Paradox clan was to be the best, manipulating others in order to get to the top. At once he did consider Asami a good friend, but that slowly change to only an ally, he always felt better when Asami comforted him because she wanted her to pity him, he wanted her to pity him so much that she would actually fulfill his deeds. Though when he saw how Rioichi held Asami in his arms, he believed that Rioichi was actually stealing away his friendship with Asami which meant he wouldn't be able to manipulate her. With a yell of rage he threw a throwing star once more, causing the wooden pole to split down the middle.

You're not the better thief Cooper, I Kenta Le Paradox am the better thief." he snarled.

With that he stormed away from the broken pole, thinking of a way he would get back at Rioichi to prove who was the best, just like his ancestors before him. Though unknown to him his father had seen the entire thing, the older skunk grinned darkly, pleased with his son's angers.

"Following in the family footsteps." he muttered.

Later that day Asami turned her head, watching the golden sun lowering behind the mountains, preparing for the bliss of night.

"It's getting late. I should be getting home." she said.

She started getting up by pulling her body up with her cane, but to her surprise Rioichi scooped her up in his arms. Rioichi wanted to carry Asami home to give her wounded leg a break. As they headed toward Asami's home, the two raccoons glanced up at the sky, watching as the small shining satrs appeared in the darkness of the night.

"The stars look lovely tonight." she muttered.

"My mother and I usually would look up at them whenever she didn't go on one of her walks." Rioichi started, "She told me they where the map of the night, that they had always guided her in her travels."

Asami stared up at the sky in wondering, wishing that she had been able to meet Ling. Without even thinking she leaned on Rioichi's shoulder and let out a deep sigh. She snuggled her head against his shirt, her eyes dropping in drowsiness.

"I'm really glad I met you Rioichi." she sighed.

"Me too." he said.

Rioichi kept walking until his eyes settled upon some lotus flowers, without a word he placed Asami back down on the ground. She was confused by this until she saw Rioichi grabbed one of the lotus flowers before turning toward Asami. He gently pushed back some of the female raccoon's hair behind her ear, leaving his hand there for a few moments. Finally he placed the lotus flower in her hair, making sure the flower was placed firmly before removing his hand.

"There now we're even." he said with a grin.

Asami laughed when she heard those words, she remembered how she had said those exact words after she had dumped scolding tea on his head in order to get back at him for causing her to fall into the fish pond.

"I guess we are." she said as she gently touched the lotus flower in her hair.

When they reached her house Asami was about to go inside until Rioichi stopped.

"Asami I've been thinking and after thinking about my mother I think it's time I've finally followed in my family's footsteps." he said.

"What do you mean?" she asked.

"In my family my family has had a tradition, every Cooper had followed it even my mother. I wasn't sure at first if I was ready, but then I began to think about it, my mother wouldn't have planned to teach me at eight if she hadn't thought I was ready. So I'm going to follow that legacy." he replied.

He didn't want to tell her the tradition was of thievery, not sure how she would react. Asami wasn't sure what Rioichi meant by tradition, but she knew she was glad that Rioichi was honoring his mother. She smiled at him once more before finally saying there good nights. When Rioichi got back home the young raccoon took a knife, cutting into a tree. He made every carve delicate, making sure not to mess up once. After hours of carving he now held in his hands a wooden cane with the top of it shaped like a C, just like the handle on his mother's sword. He wrapped bandages around where he would grip the wooden cane. Once that was done he climbed up the tree to perch on the branch, pulling the Thievus Raccoonus out of his pack. He grabbed a brush and dipped in ink before opening up the book to the first blank page. That was where he began writing about how he saved Asami from a shark, Rioichi Cooper was beginning his journey of being a thief.


	4. Heists

Chapter 4

Rioichi firmly tied a blue mask around his head, getting ready for his very first heist. He pulled his blue hood over his head before climbing up a tree with his can firmly tied to his back. He took in deep shallow breaths, nervous about the fact he was going to break the law for the very first time. His brown eyes studied the home of a corrupted shogun general who had been using his higher power to manipulate other to gather riches for him. Rioichi's goal was to steal the rare Jade Peach, a treasure rumored to once even belong to an emperor. The young raccoon considered it the perfect target for a first time heist. After having studying the area, seeing large boars guarding the home, he carefully made his way along the shadows. Each time a guard tried to shine a lantern on him he used Slytukhamen II's technique known as Shadow Power to blend into the shadows, making him to seem invisible. Though while he was completing this task he had no idea another thief planned to steal the treasure as well. Kenta sneaked along the walls of the general's home, keeping a good grip on his katana, planning to use it if he encountered any skunk threw some throwing stars to cut the ropes that held the ropes above, once he did this he grabbed a hold of the ropes and began climbing up to the rooftop.

Rioichi gripped his hand firmly on a bamboo stalk, climbing up it to reach the rooftop. He inhaled his breath sharply when he saw a few guards pass by below him, hoping that they wouldn't look up. Luckily the boar guards weren't smart enough to search the roofs for any intruders, only keeping their eyes on the ground. With a silent sigh of relief Rioichi finished climbing up to the swiftly ran across the rooftop, searching for any access inside the building, that was when he spotted an open hatch. Taking a quick look around Rioichi lowered himself down the hatch finding himself in the general's armory room. A smirked formed on his face when he saw in the center of the room was none other than the jade peach. Not wanting to be caught Rioichi grabbed the treasure and stuffed it inside his pack, he ran over to the window and opened it up. Just at that moment Rioichi jerked his head to the sounds of a struggle, Kenta had apparently blown his cover by making too much noise when he ran. The skunk swung his katana at the boar guards,fighting off each one and blocking their arrows, he hated himself for alerting the guards, he knew he had already lost his chance to steal the Jade Peach. To avoid being captured Kenta threw down a smoke pellet, engulfing his entire body in smoke to allow his escape to be unseen. When the smoke cleared the boars looked around confused, seeing that the skunk was gone.

Rioichi jumped out of the window, successfully landing on the tip of a bamboo stalk. He reached into his back, pulling out a small paper with a simple raccoon face drew on it. He quickly attached the drawing to a throwing knife and threw it at the window, causing it to attach to the window sill, just like his ancestors before him he left a calling card for the general. As he jumped from bamboo stalk to bamboo stalk during his escape he knew that the heist he had just pulled would mark the beginning of his legacy.

Nine Years Later

Rioichi worked silently in his father's work shop, he was now twenty-one and lived in his home alone. Daichi had died two years ago, his body finally taking the toll from years of over working it. Rioichi had been struggling to keep the blacksmith shop open, though with his nightly heists it was hard to balance it without anyone suspecting him. The male raccoon had successfully been able to complete each of his heist's without being seen, in fact he started calling himself a ninja just like his mother had him hide like all those years ago. He ran his fingers through his fur, thinking about Asami, he was shocked to see the young sweet raccoon he once knew grow up into a beauty, he had to admit that he had become attracted to her over the years. Though he never did try going after her, remembering how she was forbidden to fall in love. Another thing he remembered was she had mentioned to him that her mizuage was coming up, a ceremony that will change her from a maiko to a geisha. He debated whether or not he wanted to go, feeling anger at the fact there would be men looking at her while she was forced to entertain for them.

"Well maybe she would be glad to see a friendly face." he muttered to himself.

With that decided he headed for the Geisha house. Once there he was shocked to see many women dancing, singing, and serving sake to the men. He was disgusted when he saw drunk men reaching out for the geisha, trying to convince them to sleep with them, he was even more disgusted when the geisha would giggle and talk to the men seductively even though the were forbidden to sleep with anyone. Though he pushed these thought s to the side when he finally saw Asami. The female raccoon danced before the men, waving her paper fan in different directions, smiling at the drunk men. Rioichi stared in shock, he had never seen Asami actually dance before though he blinked in confusion when he saw Madame Geisha walk up next to her.

"I thank you all for coming, now as you know our maiko Asami shall become a geisha today, but to do that she must become a woman first. So who shall do the honors."

Rioichi froze in horror, he saw the sad smile began forming on Asami's face, he couldn't let anyone of those drunks touch her.

Without thinking he yelled out "I will!"

Asami gasped when she saw her very own friend had offered to do the task, tears formed in her eyes, her heart ached in betrayal. She had always prepared herself for when the day finally comes, but she had never expected it would be with the very raccoon that had saved her from a shark. Madame Geisha grinned when she saw Rioichi was the one that volunteered, without a word she guided the two raccoons to one of the empty rooms.

"Hope you both enjoy." Madame Geisha said before closing the door and locking it.

Rioichi turned toward Asami to see the female raccoon glaring at him.

"Let's get this over with." she snarled as she struggled to untie her kimono.

Rioichi quickly grabbed her by the wrists, preventing her from going any further. He knew she had gotten the wrong idea, without warning he pulled her into a hug and began stroking her hair.

"Asami I would never hurt you and I would never force you to do what you don't want to do." he whispered, "I only wanted to protect you from those men, I don't want to imagine what they would have done to you."

Tears streaked down Asami's face, smearing the white makeup, the male raccoon wanted to see the face without the makeup so he slowly began wiping away the makeup with his sleeve. He smiled when he saw the face of the female raccoon he knew instead of just another maiko with makeup on. The two said nothing as they stared into each other's eyes till finally they softly met with their lips. Asami wrapped her arms around Rioichi's neck, gently running her fingers through his fur. Rioichi rested his hands on Asami's hips as he continued to gently kiss her back. Eventually his kisses trailed down her neck as she pulled off the top of his blue martial arts uniform. He gently laid Asami down on the futon, as he brushed his lips against her's.

"I love you Asami." he whispered before kissing her once more.

"I love you as well Rioichi." she said.

Later that night Asami and Rioichi lay under the covers, the female raccoon traced her fingers down the male raccoon's bare chest, feeling nothing, but bliss after the activity the two committed. She snuggled her head against Rioichi's neck, glad that it was him, she knew Rioichi was right when he told her that one of the drunks would have done worse to her. What she also couldn't believe is that she had told Rioichi that she loved him, she knew she was forbidden to love, but she couldn't ignore her feelings any longer. Though the only way she could be with him and be able to leave the life of being a Geisha is if her offered for her hand in marriage. She awoken from her thoughts when she felt Rioichi's fingers trailing through her hair.

"I didn't hurt you did I?" he asked.

"A little, but not much. Thank you for doing this Rioichi, I don't want to imagine what would have happened if you weren't here." she said.

Rioichi smiled before finally sitting up and getting redressed in his clothes, it was time to go on one of his nightly heists. Asami watched the male raccoon, feeling a bit sad that he was already leaving her. Just then her eyes snapped wide open as an idea appeared in her head.

"Rioichi?" she asked, making the male raccoon stop in his tracks.

"You think I could watch you fish tomorrow, you haven't seemed to gone fishing lately ever since you have been trying to keep your father's blacksmith shop open ever since he died." she sated.

Rioichi was surprised by this fact, he knew that Asami had been terrified of fishing ever since that shark attacked, though he figured that was why she was asking to watch instead of actually fishing. After a while thinking about it he nodded his head in agreement causing Asami to smile.

Kenta sat in the floor meditating, ever since he failed that night of his first heist and discovered Rioichi had instead stolen it, he had isolated himself from the entire village. The skunk over the time had grew a black mustache and a small beard, changing each time, no longer looking like the young skunk he was. As he mediated he thought about a plan, he wanted to create allies that he could use to defeat Rioichi, his hatred for the Cooper Clan was now stronger than ever He wanted to end the Le Paradox Clan's history of being horrible thieves, he wanted to become the best thief. other than meditating he had also thrown himself into his training, trying to make himself stronger than Rioichi himself, he didn't care how many cuts or broken bones he would receive he just wanted to be better. His tail slightly twitched as he continued to mediate, he was no longer friends with Asami, he deemed her as nothing more than a weakling that always had held him back.

"Heh all that talk she did when we were kids about not being angry, I should have known only a weakling would say that." he thought to himself, "Also I have noticed she seemed to be attracted to Cooper. Ha, she must be blind as well as weak!"

He opened his eyes and sat up from his meditating position, he grabbed his katana off of the wall and stared at it intently.

"Perhaps I should adopt my father's methods, after all he did manage to get rid of the Cooper he had trouble with." he smirked to himself.

The next day Rioichi had his fishing pole and boat ready, he turned toward Asami who glanced at the boat nervously even though she wasn't the one getting in the boat. Rioichi gave her an assuring smile before rowing out to the ocean. The further he got out from the docks, the more he frequently scanned the waters remembered about the shark. Once he was far enough he tough his line in the water and waited, to his surprised their was an instant tug. He tried to pull on the pole, but whatever was on the line was fighting back. He clenched his teeth tighter as he pulled harder and the fishing pole, bound determined to catch what was on the line. With one final mighty pull, his eyes widen when he saw on the end of the line was the very same shark that attacked Asami. Rage filled the male raccoon as he pulled out his knife and placed it against the shark's throats, he ignored the fear developing in the shark's eyes.

"Please don't kill me." the shark begged.

Rioichi snarled as he pushed the blade closer, ready to slice the shark's neck open, but that was when he spotted something gray on the sharks chest. With the knife still placed against the shark's neck he moved away the fins to see what the mark was on the shark's chest. When he saw it he froze and dropped the knife, on the shark's chest was the symbol of the Cooper Clan.

Wh-Why do you have that mark on your chest?!" Rioichi exclaimed.

The shark glanced down at his chest, poking a fin at the gray symbol shaped like a raccoon head.

"Oh this, it's a tattoo, see I met this raccoon who said she needed my help with I heist." the shark explained, "So I agreed to help her and actually succeeded, before we went our separate ways she placed this tattoo on my chest, saying it would help me remember her since it was the symbol of her clan."

Rioichi couldn't believe what he was being told, the shark before him actually knew his mother and even had helped her with a heist. Feeling conflicted he placed his hands on his hand, tightly gripping his hair, and squeezed his eyes shut. He wanted to hate the shark for hurting Asami, but he didn't know how when the shark had actually been an ally of his mother's. The shark stared at the male raccoon, confused on why not only did he look frustrated, but also familiar After examining Rioichi closer it finally dawned on him why he found him so familiar.

"Hey you're that kid that hit me in the eye with the fishing pole nine years ago! You know I had a black eye for a week because of you!" the shark yelled.

Rioichi turned toward the shark, glaring at him with his brown eyes.

"Well perhaps if you hadn't attacked someone special to me I wouldn't have had to hit you in the eye with my fishing pole." he replied.

The shark went deep into thought, remembering how he did indeed attack Asami and bit down onto her leg when she tried to get back into the boat. His fins lowered in sadness, he wanted to tell Rioichi that he never meant to hurt her, it was just that his predator instincts have the tendency to kick in whenever he's hungry. He saw Asami was the nearest thing and decided to attack her, had he been in the right mind he would have never done such a thing.

"Okay I can see why you can be mad about that, but have you considered not holding a grudge about it?" the shark asked.

Rioichi's glare softened as he thought about the shark's words, the only person he ever knew to hold grudges was Kenta Le Paradox and he knew he didn't want to be like him. With a sigh he reached out and shook the shark's flipper.

"Alright, even though what you did still made me mad at least you're sorry about it." Rioichi replied.

The shark grinned happily as he shook the raccoon's hand faster than ever.

"Thanks, I was worried there for a second. By the way I'm Hitoshi and what's your name." the shark said.

Rioichi grinned as he answered "Rioichi, Rioichi Cooper."

The sharks eyes snapped wide open when he heard the name Cooper.

"Wait did you happen to be related to anyone name Ling Cooper?" Hitoshi asked.

Rioichi ears twitched when the shark said this, his suspicions were confirmed that Hotoshi did indeed know his mother. That left him to wonder what kind of heist his mother was on, what kind of treasure she was stealing, and who she was stealing it from.

"Yeah she's my mother." Rioichi replied.

"Oh how is she, I hadn't seen her in a while. You know she made the best noodles I ever tasted. Oh would like to know if the years have been treating her kind." Hitoshi said.

The male raccoon's ears flattened against his head before saying "I'm sorry I'm afraid I can't answer any of that. See she was killed by someone, she had me hide as not to reveal my presence."

The shark turned pale upon hearing this, he turned away and glanced at the water in shock. He remembered Ling being full of life and ready to take on the world, he found hard to believe that she was killed. Though even though he found it hard to believe Hitoshi knew who killed Asami, the very same being that tried to kill her on the night of their heist. He could remember it very clearly, large talons, metal feathers, red glowing eyes full of hate.

Making sure Rioichi didn't hear him the shark muttered under his breath "Clockwerk.


	5. Clockwerk

Chapter 5

Asami clenched her fingers tightly onto the sleeve of Rioichi's sleeve, fear filling her from seeing the very shark that had attacked her. Rioichi insured that Hitoshi was truly sorry for attacking her and wouldn't harm her again, but the female raccoon was still unsure. Though Hitoshi wasn't worried about Asami being afraid of him at the moment, what he was worried about was Clockwerk. Ling when she was still alive had never told her son about the ancient bird that hunted the Cooper Clan for centuries, how the fact of actually surviving Clockwerk's attack and living to old age was very slim, all she did was hide away in the mountains, hoping the owl wouldn't find her family. Hitoshi had hoped that Ling's plan to hide in Japan would work, he never expected that the ancient owl would succeed in finding the female raccoon. That left him to worry if whether or not Clockwerk had discovered Rioichi.

"So you're not going to attack?" Asami asked.

Hitoshi snapped out of his thoughts and answered "No I give you my word."

The female raccoon loosened her grip on Rioichi's sleeve, but still did not move near the shark, unsure if she could truly trust him. All of the sudden to Asami's surprise the male raccoon asked her to leave, wanting to speak with the shark alone, Asami willing obeyed and walked off. Rioichi had sat down with Hitoshi, asking many questions about his mother. He discovered that his mother had a gang that helps her with heists, she had a rabbit considered the brain, a gorilla considered the brawn, and Ling herself as the thief. To his surprise Hitoshi told him about that day when he joined the gang that Ling would flirt with Feng Fox who was ordered to capture her. Though Hitoshi explained to Rioichi that Ling did that to mess with Feng's head, her heart belonged to Daichi alone. As Hitoshi continued talking, Rioichi pulled out the Thievius Racconus. He flipped it open to the page he had written on and began writing about his technique the spire jump, though he began to wonder how proud his mother would be at the fact he developed a new thief technique. These thoughts caused him to flip the pages of the Thievius Racoonus until he stopped on his mother's section. He smiled a bit, glad that the ancient book had a picture so he could remember what she looked like. He was fixing to close the book until for the first time he noticed something in the background of his mother's picture.

Rioichi narrowed his brown eyes as he focused on a dark silhouette of an owl that was sitting on top of the trees, watching the female raccoon with his red eyes full of hate. Out of curiosity he flipped the pages to Sir Galleth's section and saw the owl once again perched on the bell tower. He looked at Salim Al Cooper's section, shocked to see the owl in the background on an island. Finally he checked the very first page in the Thievius Racoonus, Slytunkhamen II's, he stared at the picture and there on the wall was the same owl with the same red eyes full of hate. Rioichi blinked in confusion, trying to figure why the owl was in all of the pictures. That was when he remembered that night when his mother was talking to his father, he remembered her say the words hunted and prey. Without a word Rioichi turned toward Hitoshi, he wanted answers.

"Hitoshi you know enough about my mother, what was hunting her?" he asked.

The shark's eyes snapped wide open, shocked that the male raccoon manged to piece together that Ling was hunted when she was still alive.

"I heard her on the night she died say the words hunted and prey, at first I didn't understand it until I noticed in the Theivus Raccoonus there is an owl in the background of every ancestor. Who is that owl and why did he kill my mother." Rioichi said.

Hitoshi took in a deep sigh, even though he only went on one heist with Ling, that one heist was enough to know about the Cooper Clan's enemy.

"His name is Clockwerk." the shark started, "He's an ancient owl that has been using machinery to keep himself alive, he's more machine than animal now. Clockwerk killed your mother because she is a Cooper, he wants to wipe out the entire Clan. Very few ancestors managed to survive his attack, two of them were Sir Galleth and Salim. They may have been lucky enough to live to old age, but others weren't Clockwerk has killed so many of your ancestor though unfortunately for him it was after they had children."

"Then why hasn't he come after me?" Rioichi asked.

"Clockwerk must have not known Ling had you, he probably thought he successfully ended the line when he killed her. Though I doubt he'll be fooled for long, once he knows you exist you better be careful, because you'll never know which breath you take will be your last." Hitoshi replied.

Kenta cautiously looked around the woods, his ears twitching at every sound. His green eyes scanned the tress as he heard the sound of leaves and branches rustling. Before he could react an unknown attacker slammed him into the ground, he tried to get up, but found himself pinned to the ground by large talons. He looked up, finding himself staring into glowing red eyes, seeing this a dark grin formed on his face.

"Ah Clockwerk I see you got my message. So glad you could show up." he said.

The mechanical owl narrowed his eyes as he pushed his talons down harder on the male skunk, this caused Kenta to flinch in pain. He knew summoning Clockwerk was a dangerous idea, his father even told him how Clockwerk even killed not only Cooper ancestors, but Le Paradox ancetors as well. The ancient owl had slain the skunks whenever they tried to ask him for help, only Kentga's father was successful.

"Why did you summon me mortal?" Clockwerk snarled,

"My father told me that you slain Ling Cooper." Kenta said, trying to push the talons off of his body.

"Yes I did, she was the final one of her clan." the mechanical owl replied, angry at the fact skunk was telling him something he already knew.

Kenta bit his lip in pain as he felt his chest ache in pain from the pressure of the talons pressing down.

"She wasn't the last one, she had a son!" he said in a panicked tone.

Clockwerk's eyes widened at this before he quickly lifted up his talons off of Kenta. He sneered when he watched the male skunk cough and gasp for air, believing him to be weak like all beings in the world. He silently lowered his head where his red eyes glared at the skunk.

"Where is her son?" Clockwerk demanded in a threatening tone, his eyes glowing with hatred.

"He lives in a small village not far from here. His name is Rioichi. He and his father came here fourteen years ago." Kenta replied.

The skunk jump from fright when Clockwerk let out an enraged yell, the mechanical owl was angry at himself for believing he actaully managed to kill the last Cooper. If he had know Ling was hiding her son he would have destroyed the house and killed him at that moment. Without warning Clcockwerk snatched Kenta up in his talons, making the terrified skunk look at him directly in the face.

"My skills are superior. My intellect is refined. My experience is greater. You will help me slay Cooper or unless you want to take his place." Clockwerk hissed.

"Yes I will help, I want Cooper gone as well." Kenta said with a hint of nervousness in his voice.

To the skunk's relief he was placed on the ground, he silently sighed as he watched Clockwerk move over to the opening of trees. The mechanical owl stared down at the village.

"I will kill you Cooper, just like how I killed your mother. It's amazing that both of your hiding places were revealed by a skunk. Of course when I find you I won't leave any loose ends like I unintentionally did with your mother." the mechanical owl thought as he began creating a plan.

A few weeks had passed, Asami sat in the garden where she and Rioichi first met. She had went there to think about a recent discovery, she laid her hand on her stomach and let out a sigh. Rioichi didn't know it, but Asami was pregnant with their unborn kit. She bit her lip nervously, unsure what to tell the male raccoon. She sat silently until she heard footsteps, she glanced up and to her surprise she saw Kenta standing in front of her. She didn't say anything as the male skunk sat down next to her.

"Look I know I haven't talked to you in a while, but you looked like you had something on your mind." he said.

Asami turned away from Kenta with her hand still on her stomach, she didn't like how he was trying to strike up a conversation with her, she found it suspicious that he treated her bitterly and now was all of the sudden being kind. Kenta clenched his fist slightly when he saw the female raccoon was refusing to talk.

"So..." he started, "I heard you had your mizuage, who did you sleep with?"

Asami's eyes snapped wide and she turned to slap Kenta only to have her wrist caught by him. She snarled at him, struggling to get her wrist free.

"Was it Rioichi?" he asked.

The female raccoon stopped struggling and turned her head away from him, her eyes focused on the fish pond. She remembered how when she fell in it when she first met Rioichi. Unknown to her a smirk grew on Kneta's face, silently he let go of her wrist, got up, and walked off. Once at side of the garden he climbed up the village wall, heading to the highest point, there Clockwerk was waiting for him.

"Well he has indeed already mated, based on the woman he slept with actions I'd say there's another Cooper on the way." Kenta said.

Clockwerk narrowed his eyes in anger, though he was glad the Cooper was not yet born, making it easier to kill. He turned his head toward the mountains, he had Kenta secretly building up an army to attack the village, the war would provide as a distraction to draw Rioichi from home, giving him the chance to strike.

"Go alert the general that everything is prepared. He may proceed with the attack." Clockwerk commanded.

Kenta nodded before he jumped off of the wall landing successfully on the ground, he didn't like the fact he was having to take orders from the mechanical owl, but he wanted Rioichi gone and was willing to swallow his pride to do so. With that in mind he ran off, following his orders to alert the general to attack.

Rioichi silently walked into the garden, he didn't know why, but he had the urge to go to the place where he and Asami met. To his surprise he found the female raccoon sitting silently on the grass, staring at the fish swimming around in the small pond. He walked over to her, concerned about the worried look on her face and laid his hand on her shoulder. Asami gasped out of surprise and spun around to face the male raccoon.

"Rioichi I-I-I wasn't expecting you." she said nervously.

"Who were you expecting then?" he asked with a raised brow.

"No one actually." she admitted as she sat back down on the grass.

As Rioichi sat down he saw how the female raccoon constantly kept her hands on her stomach, her tail twitching with nervousness. He couldn't figure out what was making Asami so nervous, but he knew it had to involve him since it was the sight of making her nervous. He gently laid his hand on her shoulder and began rubbing it in an attempt to calm her down. Asami's chest rised and fell as she took deep breaths, she knew that Rioichi had the right to know what she was worried about, she didn't want to imagine how upset he would be if he didn't know about his own child. Taking in a deep breath once more, she turned toward the male raccoon, grasping both of his hands within her own. She stared into his brown eyes with her own, gathering up the courage to tell him the news.

"Rioichi there's something I need to tell you." she said.

Rioichi listened silently, giving Asami a smile to make her not so nervous.

"Rioichi I-I-I'm p-pr-pregnant." she stuttered, squeezing her eyes tightly shut.

The male raccoon nearly stopped breathing when Asami said this, he had no idea how to react. While a part of him was thrilled that he was going to be a father another part of him was worried ever since he found out about Clockwerk, he knew the ancient owl will now surely come after Asami and his unborn child. He narrowed his eyes and placed both of his hands on Asami's shoulders.

"Asami this is great news, but there is something I need to tell you." he said, "I'm a thief."

"What?" she asked in confusion.

"I didn't want to tell you, but now that you actually bare the next Cooper I think you need to learn about my family." Rioichi explained, "I am a thief, just like my mother, and just like my ancestors. The Cooper Clan are thieves of honor, only stealing from other thieves. I become part of the legacy nine years ago, though it is recently that I learned there is someone after me, it is the very person who killed my mother."

Asami stared in fear as her hand clenched into a fist, she wasn't horrified by the fact that Rioichi and his entirefamily were thieves, she was horrified that the very same person that killed his mother fourteen years ago is now trying to kill him.

"His name his Clockwerk and he has been hunting my family for centuries, if he finds out about you he will try to kill you to kill our unborn child." he continued.

Before Asami could say anything screams began to fill the air, in the village guards were attacking, slaying innocent villagers, trying to cause as much havoc as they could. Rioichi quickly pulled on his hood and took his cane off of his back.

"Asami go hide and don't you dare come out till I say so!" he yelled.

Asami nodded before running inside for safety. Once Asami was safe Rioichi charged toward the guards, he cane wound back, ready to attack. He jumped up and smashed his cane into one of the boar guards heads, stunning him. He quickly threw ninja stars at the guard, killing him instantly, he ran past the dead bleeding body of the boar to fight the next guard. Remembering the different techniques he learned in the Thievius Racconus he began running around the boar guard as fast as he could. The boar guard began to panic with he saw a cyclone surrounding his body, Rioichi was using his mother's technique Silent Obliteration. He ran faster and faster, making the winds of the miniature cyclone blow faster and faster, the guard screamed in pain as the wind forcefully sucked him down to the ground, silently snapping his neck. Rioichi landed on a rock spire staring down at the boar's dead body, just then he felt a katana being pointed at his neck, he turned to see the owner of the katana was Kenta Le Paradox.

"End of the line Cooper." Kenta hissed.

Rioichi clenched his teeth and quickly pulled out his ninjato sword from behind his back. Their blades clashed as they swung their weapons at the opponent, trying to wound one another. Rioichi couldn't believe that his aggressive rivalry with Kenta would turn into a deadly one. They continued clashed their swords, working their way to the rooftops, but what Rioichi didn't know was Kenta was leading him into a trap. Clockwerk watched as the two made their way into position, he wanted it to be perfect when he swooped in and crushed the raccoon to death with his deadly talons. Kenta and Rioichi backed up, nearing the edge of the rood, Kenta smirked because Rioichi was finally in position. He jumped away, confusing the male raccoon until he heard the familiar sound of flapping wings. He turned around, his body paralyzed in fear, his mother's screams echoing in his mind, his eyes staring into two red glowing eyes. Rioichi stood there in horror as Clockwerk continued flying straight for him. Though before Riocihi could be snatched up in the deadly talons a familiar shark knocked him to the ground, allowing him to dodge the grounds.

Reality finally caught up to Rioichi as he gasped for air, still scared from seeing the very owl that killed his mother. He saw Hitoshi quickly getting back up, turning his back toward Rioichi.

"Hop on, we'll take out this guy together!" Kenta yelled.

Before Rioichi did this he saw a dead board guard lying next to him, he examined his armor, figuring it was the best protection against Clockwerk's talons, Quickly he stripped the boar of his armor, placing it on himself, they he struggled to keep the pieces on due to them being meant for a boar and not a raccoon. He grabbed some reigns and placed them in Hitoshi's mouth so he would have something to hold onto to. Seeing he was ready Rioichi jumped onto the shark's back, grasping the reigns in one hand and his ninjato in the other. His eyes narrowed at the battlefield full of boar guards and shogun warriors now fighting each other, but this wasn't his target. His eyes settled on the mechanical bird he was looking for, seeing him perched on the top of the prison.

"This is for my mother." Rioichi said quietly before he and Hitoshi charged forward through the battle, headed for Clockwerk.


	6. Kids

Chapter 6

Rioichi narrowed his eyes at the mechanical owl perched on the rooftop, the very being that had hunted his family for centuries. He planned on ending his famly's curse or to die trying. Hitoshi moved swiftly through the crowd of fighting shoulders, his razor sharp teeth clamping down tightly on the reigns in his mouth. Clockwerk snarled as he pushed off of the rood, flapping his metal mechanical wings, the routine was all familiar to him. He always felt a rush of pleasure when he held a dead raccoon of the Cooper family in his hands, he remembered how pleased he was when he killed Ling. He remembered the tears streaking down her face, her screams of agony, the blood pouring from the wounds he created, what he even loved more is what he did when she had died. He grinned at the memory of flying high up in the air with the dead female raccoon's body and dropped it, watching as the body fell down to the mountain's canyons where it would rot, he wanted to do the same to Rioichi. Clockwerk swooped in with talons open, ready to snatch up the male raccoon within them, but to anger Rioichi and Hitoshi managed to dodge his attack. The ancient bird landed on the village wall, ready to attack again.

"You might as well surrender Cooper, if your mother couldn't defeat me then you cannot either." he said.

Rioichi clenched his teeth at the mention of his mother, his grip on his ninjato sword tightened. He let out a yell of anger as Clockwerk swooped in for another attack, waiting for the right moment to strike. Once close enough to the mechanical owl, he stabbed his sword into the small area of flesh that remained on the bird, causing Clockwerk to yell out in pain. The ancient bird narrowed his glowing red eyes at the male raccoon, his metals wings glinting in the moonlight. Without warning he swooped in once more, but this time he aimed for the shark, Hitoshi yelled in pain as he felt the owl's talons sink into his skin, he had to admit he wasn't a young shark and wasn't able to take a lot of damage. Rioichi snarled through his teeth an he began constantly stabbing Clockwerk's leg that wasn't covered in machine in an attempt to have his friend released for the ancient bird's deadly talons. Unfortunately Rioichi did not know that Clockwerk had anticipated this, the mechanical owl released the shark and tightly wrapped his talons around the male raccoon. Rioichi's eyes snapped wide open in pain as he found himself being lifted up high in the air, watching as the guards grew smaller and smaller the higher up Clockwerk flew with him. Once Clockwerk was high enough he held Rioichi up to his face, making him stare at his red eyes full of hate.

"You were foolish Cooper. My skills are superior. My intellect is refined. My experience is greater. You shall die Cooper, just like your mother." Clockwerk said.

He destroyed Rioichi's army before he began crushing him with he talons, Rioichi screamed in pain, his bones on the verge of breaking. As he suffered through the pain he remembered his mother. He remembered how she sat next to the river, her eyes studying every current, every ripple, watching it flow without effort, that was when he remembered a phrase his mother had taught him.

"Though the bamboo forest may be dense..." he said through clenched teeth as he reached for his cane, "Water flows through it without effort!"

His hand wrapped tightly around the handle of his cane, using all of his strength he stabbed his cane into Clockwerk's eye, shattering the class upon contact. The mechanical owl shrieked in pain, releasing the male raccoon from his talons, causing Rioichi to fall at top speeds toward the ground. Clockwerk tried to focus on his surroundings, but due to his shattered mechanical owl it shot out sparks, causing the vision in his good eye to be nothing, but static. The mechanical owl snarled in anger, knowing that he had to repair himself, as he flew off he vowed he come back for Rioichi and kill him. As he fell he could have sworn he saw his mother smiling at him, so he closed his eyes, accepting his fate. Though the raccoon did not hit the ground like he expected, instead Hitoshi jumped across one of the roofs, catching him successfully in his flippers. They both landed on the other roof, their bodies tumbling before coming to a stop. Hitoshi squeezed his eyes shut, blood pouring from the wounds that Clockwerk's talons had created. Rioichi got up, holding his stomach in pain, he limped over to the shark, placing his free hand on the shark's wounds in an attempt to stop the bleeding.

"Rioichi!" a voice screamed.

Rioichi turned to see Asami running towards him, she hugged his body gently as so not to hurt him.

"Oh Rioichi when I saw Clockwerk grabbed you I was worried that I would lose you." she said with tears streaking down her face.

Rioichi shushed as he lay his head in the crane of her neck, silently comforting her. He glanced down to see the shogun had defeated the boar guards, he also saw Kenta congratulating the shogun warriors for protecting the village. Rioichi thought back to his fight with Kenta, he wasn't sure, but he actually suspected that Kenta was helping Clockwerk to try to kill him. That left the male raccoon to wonder why the skunk would want him dead and what secrets he may be hiding. Though first he had to settle something first, he grasped Asami by the hands, making her look into his brown eyes.

"Asami you mean a lot to me and after what's happened it showed me that I can lose anything precious at anytime. So Asami I ask you this, will you marry me?" Rioichi said.

Asami gasped in shock, but with a smile she nodded her head and hugged the male raccoon tightly, backing away when he heard him whimper in pain from being hugged too tight. Once Rioichi and Hitoshi's wounds were tended to, the two ended up receiving gifts from the shogun general in honor for their bravery. Hitoshi received a yellow kimono in order to hide the wound her received from Clockwerk and Rioichi received many riches to help take care of himself and his fiance Asami. Rioichi couldn't be more happier, not only was he able to avenge his mother's death, but he was going to be a husband and father, though he kept his guard up, knowing that Clockwerk would return one day to attempt to kill him again. Kenta had cut off contact with the village once more, refusing to talk to anyone, the only thing that anyone knew was that soldiers were always summoned to his home for unknown meetings, there was rumors that the skunk was creating an army, but no one had proof, leaving them to wonder what plans the skunk had.

A few months later Rioichi and Asami had went to the village shrine to wed, they both smiled at each other as they stood next to each other, watching as the ceremony proceeded before their eyes. The shinto priest condusted the ceremony having the two raccoons drink sake for purification and have Rioichi read a letter of commitment to Asami. After that they were finally wed Asami was now Asami Cooper, originally Rioichi was suppose to take Asami's last name according to tradition, but she insisted on taking his name, saying that the Cooper line should continue. Though before they could go to their home, Rioichi had discovered that his friend Hitoshi was actually dying, Clockwerk's talons had done more serious damage to the shark than anyone had imagined. The two raccoons quickly rushed over to the doctor's home, seeing Hitoshi's skin now a deadly pale as he struggled to keep his eyes open.

"I done everything I can, but the damage is too serious." the doctor said before leaving the room.

Rioichi bit his lip to fight back his tears, not only did Clockwerk take away his mother, but now his friend, having caused the very wounds killing his friend. He walked over and kneeled down next to Hitoshi's bed, with his head lowered to the ground.

"Hitoshi I am so sorry, it's my fault your are dying. Clockwerk wouldn't have attacked you if I wasn't there." Rioichi said in a weak tone.

Hitoshi laid his flipper weakly on the raccoon's shoulder, using all of his strength to smile at him. Without a word he grabbed a paint brush and began painting red lines along his stomach. Rioichi was confused by this until Hitoshi handed him a fillet knife, his body began shaking in fear, realizing that the shark wanted him to kill him.

"Please do this Rioichi, I'm old and I don't want to give Clockwerk the sanctification of killing me in order to pain you. I know it will be painful, but it will be less painful to your mentality if you were the cause of my death rather than Clockwerk." the shark explained.

Rioichi clenched his hands around the fillet, hesitating about whether or not to honor his friend's wishes. Finally with his eyes squeezed shut he plunged the knife into Hitoshi's chest. the shark let out a death filled gasp before smiling as he let out his last breath and closed his eyes. Rioichi sobbed as he continued cutting along the lines Hitoshi had painted, cutting out different meats of the dead shark, laying the meats on top of each other in a certain order. When he finished he did not look down at his friend's dead cut opened body, considered the sight too painful. Rioichi wiped away the tears and laid the blood covered knife on the ground, turning toward the chunks of meat he had cut out of Hitoshi's body, not knowing what to do with it he gave the chunks of meat to the village elder Nobuo. That night Rioichi had taken his anger out on the guards of his heist location, he brutally bashed his cane against their heads, his brown fur being covered in crimson blood, he wanted relief from his inner pain. He went from one guard to the next, ignoring their pleas for mercy, all he could see was red glowing eyes full of hate.

Rioichi returned to is home late that night covered in blood, he lit one of the lanterns so he could see, but upon doing this he saw that Asami was awake. The female raccoon frowned at the sight of seeing her husband come home late covered in blood. She didn't even have to ask to know the blood covering Rioichi was the blood of guards. She laid a hand on her swollen belly, feeling the baby kick a few times. Rioichi kneeled down next to his wife and laid his hand on her stomach, smiling a little when he felt the baby kick.

I'm sorry for my actions Asami, I may have lost a friend, but at least you and out child is safe." he said.

Asami smiled and hugged her husband, comforting him like he would do to her. The next morning Rioichi was awoken by the sound of knocking at his door, he stretched his arms and yawned as he got out of his futon, careful not to awaken his sleeping wife. When he got to the door to his surprise he saw Nobuo.

"Ah good Rioichi you're awake. That food you gave me was absolutely delicious, I never had anything like it!' Nobuo proclaimed.

Rioichi's eyes widen in shock, the food Nobuo was talking about was the meat chunks from Hitoshi, He had no idea that the village elder would actually eat the meat, but upon discovering that the village elder found it delicious made him curious if he tried it with regular fish. To test it out he went to his usual fishing pond, caught some fish, and served them up the same way the meat from Hitoshi was served. When he gave it to the villagers, they loved the food and asked what it was called. Without even thinking Rioichi told that he had named the food sushi. Due to his great success he used the money he had earned from the shogun to open up a very successful sushi resturant that not only provided as place to serve sushi, but also a great hideout for a ninja.

Seven Months Later

Asami yelled in pain as she tightly clung onto Rioichi's hand, she was finally giving birth to their child. She took in deep breaths, her pain growing more and more by the second. Tears streak down her face as she continued screaming in pain, the doctor trying to tell her to keep calm throughout the entire process. Finally she heard the sound of crying, she looked to see the doctor holding a grey furred female baby raccoon, bawling as loud as she could. The doctor dried off the baby as he checked to see how healthy the baby was, everything was fine except for one the baby's eyes, while the left was brown, her right eye was blind. The doctor handing the baby girl raccoon, to Asami who gently held the baby in her arms. She gently stroked the baby's head, watching as the baby let out a small yawn.

"What shall we name her?" Rioichi asked.

Asami smiled down at the baby in her arms before replying "Henriette."

Rioichi smiled at his wife's suggestion, he like the name of Henriette Cooper.

Three Years Later

"Daddy look a me! I'm a pirate! Arrrr!" Henriette giggled as she ran around, swinging her twig through the air.

Rioichi couldn't help, but smile at his daughters enthusiasm, he knew how she had been interested in pirates ever since he told her stories about them. He would always watch her climb around the trees as she pretended they were the masts of ships full of treasure, she even once told her father that she wanted to be the greatest thief among pirates.

"Alright my little pirate let's see your progress on the rock spire jump." Rioichi said with a grin.

Henriette nodded as she climbed up onto a small rock spire, she tried to keep her balance, but ended up wobbling and lost balance. Instead of falling on the ground she was caught in her father's arms who placed her back on the rock spire, urging her to try again. Over and over again he would place her on the rock spire and she would lose balance and fall, but every time he always encouraged her to try again with a smile. Finally after many attempts she finally successfully managed to keep her balance on the rock spire.

"Daddy I did it! I did it!: she squealed as she jumped into his arms.

Rioichi laughed as he tumbled on the ground with his daughter, proud that she finally managed to successfully balance on a rock spire.

"You're going to make a great thief." he said with a smile.

"Thank you daddy." Henriette replied as she hugged him tightly.

Meanwhile Kenta was raising his own family, he had wed a female skunk and together they two twin boys. Of course Kenta refused to train his weaker son the thieving ways of his family, he only wanted to teach his stronger son. his wife watched sadly as the two young skunks fought each other trying to prove who was the stronger sibling, they threw punches and kicks at each other, using all their strength to be the victor, the two twins names was Roy and Edward. The twins wrestled in the floor, yelling at each other in rage. Kenta watched this sight, pleased at how determined his sons were to become the next Le Paradox Clan thief. Finally both of the twins collapsed on the floor exhausted, no longer able to fight for the moment.

"Oh I see your twin are still not up to Le Paradox standards are they no?" a male french accented voice said.

Kenta quickly turned to see a male skunk that look similar to him except he had white hair, a curly mustache, and he wore a green jumpsuit with yellow gloves and a red scarf. He had his wife take the twins to the next room before turning to the mysterious stranger once more. He sat down on the floor, gesturing for the mysterious skunk to sit down as well. The mysterious skunk made a disgusted face at the thought of sitting on the floor before finally taking a seat.

"Now who are you?" Kenta demanded.

"Of forgive me for not introducing myself sooner. I am Cyrille Le Paradox." teh mysterious skunk replied.

Kenta eyes snapped wide open before he snarled in anger.

"Impossible, I am the only Le Paradox here, my father is dead and my sons are not yet worthy of the name! You are obviously lying!" he yelled.

Cyrille Le Paradox waved his index finger as he said "Aha that's is where you are wrong. See I am your relative from the future."

"Future?!" Kenta exclaimed.

"Besides even if I were lying you still would be interested in my offer." Cyrille replied.

"What would that be?" Kenta asked with interest.

The french skunk smirked before answering "Getting rid of Cooper."

Kenta grinned at these words, he hadn't had tried to get rid of Rioichi ever since his attempt failed when he teamed up with Clockwerk. Seeing that his ancestor was willing to help, Cyrille called in a male tiger wearing an army uniform. The tiger took a smoke a the cigar his his mouth before grinning evilly.


	7. Sly

Chapter 7

Rioichi clenched his teeth as metal cuffs were slapped onto both of his wrists. He was being arrested for supposedly serving bad sushi to the shogun, Henriette cried and begged for her father to be released as she was held back by her mother. Asami fought back tears as she stared into her husband's brown eyes, she had never imagined everything that would happen. She pulled her daughter tightly into her arms as the boar guards began leading Rioichi away. The last one to leave was the male tiger smoking a cigar that now was wearing a black martial arts uniform instead of an army uniform,though before he left he smirked at Asami and Henriette as if to say they were next. When the guards were gone Asami ushered Henriette into the house to quickly gather their things, fearing what would happen if they too were imprisoned. As Rioichi was being lead through town in chains, his eyes were wide in shock of what had become of the once peaceful village, instead of the little peaceful village he lived in, it now was swarmed with guards searching every inch of the village. He yelped in pain when one of the guards jerked hard on his chains, causing the male raccoon's arms to be pulled on as well. He glanced up at the two big wooden doors of the prison he was being lead to, for a moment he could have sworn he said Clockwerk on top of the prison, watching him with a grin of satisfaction.

Though Rioichi didn't have enough time to confirm whether or not it was Clockwerk because by then he already lead inside the prison. It felt like was was walking for centuries in the chains he as chained in, but finally the guards came to a halt. Rioichi examined the room he was in, seeing it was a giant cave with dragon statues and a single cage being suspending above the bottomless cavern below. With warning the male tiger grabbed Rioichi by the neck and unchained his chains, the male raccoon choked at he tired to pry off the tiger's grip with his hands. The tiger ignored this as he walked over to the cage, once there he threw Rioichi inside and locked it up. The male raccoon scampered to his feet, grasping the cage bars with his hands, snarling in anger.

"Hope you enjoy your cage Cooper because you'll be staying here forever!" the tiger said.

Rioichi's grip around the bars tightened, he knew something had to be up otherwise whoever was behind this wouldn't have gone through all the trouble to imprison him. The male tiger turned toward the boar guards as he held out his hand.

"Now which one of you has the cane? he asked.

Frightened looks began forming on the boars' faces, some of them gulping nervously. Without warning the male tiger tossed away his cigar and roared in anger.

"You fools were suppose to get his cane as well! Search everywhere, we won't get any information out of Cooper even if we tried! Now get going!" he yelled.

All the guards instantly fled except for the ones assigned to guard Rioichi's cage, the male tiger pulled out a new cigar and lit it to relieve his frustration of the fact the very thing he was suppose to delivery to his boss was not there. Rioichi watched the tiger leave the room before sliding down in his cage, he let out a huge sigh and hung his head toward the ground, unsure how he was going to escape.

Kenta Le Paradox watched the prison, examining the many guards that had the area surrounded.

"Impressive, you did indeed come through on your promise, using the army that I had been forging over the years you had managed to use them to place Cooper out of commission. Now there is nothing stopping from Le Paradox being known as the greatest thief of this time." he said as he turned toward his descendant.

"Of course, anything to help you out my ancient ancestor, after all if it weren't for you I would not be inspired to use a sword of my one. My father was more impressed by the guns you see." Cyrille said as he examined his rapier sword.

Kenta looked around the village once more and that was when he spotted Clockwerk perched on top of the prison.

"Seems that old bird is here as well. Guess he considers this series of events the end of the Cooper family line." he commented.

Cyrille walked up next to his ancestor, noticing the ancient bird as well. He heard about Clockwerk and how he was defeated and was destroyed when the hate chip was smashed by Carmelita Fox, all except for his eye. Cyrille Le Paradox had actually located the eye and had Penelope replicate the technology to help create the time machine, of course after that he had it hidden away in a different time. Though he did not want to tell his ancestor all of this so he stood next to him silently, thinking about the plan he had already set in motion.

"So are you positive Rioichi cannot escape?" Cyrille finally asked.

Kenta laughed before replying with a smirk "I set up so many traps that only a another Cooper could possibly free him."

Meanwhile in the forest things were quiet till a bright flash appeared. When it cleared it revealed a blue van with flame designs on it along with a raccoon symbol on the front of it. The van speed through the bamboo trees and bushes before coming to a screeching halt. The doors swung open and three figures tumbled out of the van, all of them moaning and groaning. The first figure was a gray raccoon wearing a blue sweater, gloves, hat, and boots, along with a black mask. The third figure was a green turtle in a robotic wheelchair, wearing tan shirt, shots, hat, and gray sandals Finally the third figure was a large pink hippo wearing a red wrestling mask, a blue shirt, white shoes, and a white scarf.

"Is everyone alright?" the raccoon asked.

"Yeah Sly though I feel like I going to lose that pepperoni, ice cream, and ham sandwich I ate earlier." the hippo groaned as he held his hands on his stomach.

"Don't worry Murray, that's just time nausea, the more we travel through time, the more we'll get use to it." the turtle said.

"If you say so Bentley." Murray groaned as he continued trying to hold down his lunch.

Sly got up on his feet and for the first time since they got there took a look around at their surroundings. He knew he had to find out where his ancestor Rioichi Cooper was. He walked over to some bamboo trees and pushed them to the side, though what he saw made his eyes widen in shock, Murray and Bentley walked up next to Sly, shoving away bamboo trees and even they were shocked as well. they saw how the once peaceful village was now swarming with guards They quickly let go of the bamboo trees, allowing them to shield their presence when they saw one of the boar guards walk by.

"What happened here?" Sly asked.

"I'm not sure, but it must be whatever is causing the pages of the Thievius Raccoonus to disappear." Bentley replied.

Just then they heard the sound of screaming, thinking fast Sly ran in the direction of the sounds. Once he was there was saw the boar guards forcing Asami on her knees as they slapped the metal cuffs on her wrists.

"Trying to run away huh? You may have helped the little brat get away, but you're not" the boar guard said.

That was when Sly could here small whimpers in the bush behind him, he pushed the bushes away to see none other than Henriette Cooper. He reached out his hand to her, only for the small female raccoon to back away, whimpering in fear.

"Hey don't worry I'm not with those guys. I'm one of the good guys." he insured her.

Henriette looked past Sly to see the boar guards beginning to lead Asami away. Quickly she grabbed onto Sly's sleeve with tears streaking down her face.

"Please you need to save my mommy, they're taking her away just like they did with daddy!" she begged.

Sly nodded in understanding as his grip on his cane tightened, without a word he had Henriette hide in the bushes once gain. He slowly snuck behind the guards, his cane set back, ready to attack. Finally he hooked his cane on one of the guard's armor and slung the guard backwards, knocking him unconscious. The other guard turned around only to be smacked in the head with Sly's cane and falling unconscious. Asami stared at the male raccoon who had rescued her, Sly dug around the boar guards' pockets till he managed to find the key to the chains. Asami rubbed her wrists as she examined the gray raccoon before her, she didn't know why, but he reminded her of Rioichi.

"Are you alright?" Sly asked as he took Asami by the hand and helped her off of the ground.

"Yes, but what of my daughter?" she asked.

At that moment Henriette came out of her hiding place, Asami kneeled on the ground and hugged her daughter tightly, stroking her head in happiness.

"Come on I'll lead you two to safety." Sly said.

Without a word the three raccoons made their way inside the bamboo forest where they found Bentley and Murray inside of the temporary hideout. Bentley explained how they were already doing damage to the timeline just from being there, but by involving more people they were causing worse damage. Though the turtle was willing to let it slide when Sly explained the situation to him. While Sly left to get familiar with the new surroundings, Asami explained to Bentley who she and her daughter was and about how Rioichi was arrested and imprisoned in a new high security prison. Bentley was shocked, not only at the fact that Rioichi had been arrested, but also at the fact they arrived at the time Henriette was still a child. Wanting not to interfere with Henriette's future, Bentley told Asami about where they were from, but had her promise not to tell Henriette who they were, Asami understood and agrees to Bentley's terms. When Sly returned from examining the new surroundings, even he was shocked to learn that his ancestor had been arrested. They knew that meant the important thing at the moment was to get Rioichi out of prison.

"Sly since you know where everything is, I'm going to need you to take some photos that way I can study the structures and come up with a plan." Bentley said.

"Gotcha buddy, recon pictures coming up." Sly said before leaving the hideout.

The male raccoon made his way swiftly through the village, taking pictures of the prison, Rioichi's restaurant, the Geisha House, and the dragon gates. Though before Sly could leave, out from the Geisha House emerged the male tiger that had imprisoned Rioichi. Sly quickly climbed up onto one of the village buildings, deciding to get a snapshot of him to since he obviously looked out of place with the rest of the surroundings. Once he got the picture, he placed his binocom over his eyes, inside the video footage of Bentley appeared.

"Sly I'm sure I recognize that guy! He's wanted by Interpol! He's a ruthless mercenary general, responsible for overthrowing several small countries!" Benteley exclaimed.

"So what kind of mess are we in Bentley?" Sly asked.

"I don't know, but one thing's certain my hunch was correct. We aren't the only ones with a time machine!" the green turtle replied.

With that he took off his binocom and quickly made his way back to the hideout.

"Oh Sly you're back." Bentley said, "I did some research on that tiger and sure enough I was right. That tiger we saw is the mercenary on interpol's wanted list. His name is El Jefe, Interpol almost caught him, but he ended up vanishing without a trace. Looks like we've found where he's been hiding."

Asami was happy to hear that she would soon be reunited with her husband, but was saddened at the fact that Bentley needed time to figure. Sly watched as the female raccoon slowly left the hideout, not wanting her to get caught again Sly went after her. Outside he saw Asami sitting on top of the hideout's rooftop, her head buried in her knees. Silently he climbed up on the rooftop and sat down next to her. Quietly he laid his hand on her back and slowly started running it up and down, just like the times he had done to Carmelita whenever he saw her depressed. Asami looked up at Sly, wiping away the tears that were streaking down her face.

"Hey I know you're worried, but don't worry we'll get Rioichi back." Sly insured her as he continued running his hand up and down her back.

"I know, but it pains me to be away from him. Had you ever had the suffer through the pain of being separated from the on you love?" she replied.

The male raccoon let out a deep sigh as he thought about the certain female fox that he had betrayed, he didn't want to lie to her for so long, but pretending he had amnesia was the only way he could be close to her without the shock pistol in the way. Asami saw the sadness in Sly's eyes, without warning she pulled him over where his head lay in her lap, he was embarrassed by this until Asami reasoned with him that it was like comforting her child since he was her descendant. She took off Sly's blue hat and began gently stroking his head, just like how she did with Henriette. Sly was actually surprised that the action was actually calming him, he closed his eyes as he began picturing that it was Carmelita calming him instead of Asami. They remained like this until Murray began calling for them, telling them that Bentley had formed a plan. Sly lifted his head off of the female raccoon's lap and put back on his blue hat. He smiled at Asami to silently tell her thank you before they both entered the hideout. Once inside Bentley explained that the prison was surrounded by too many guards and the only way in was for Sly to swipe some armor so he could trick the guards into thinking he was a guard.

With the plan set, Sly made his way out into the village, silently swiping away armor pieces. When he put on the armor he was surprised how big it was as he struggled to keep it on his body. The armor was so heavy that he had to take huge steps in order to walk, causing the armor to clang around, much to Sly's disliking. It was a slow and long walk, but he managed to make it to the prison door. Though before he could get into the prison the boar guard stopped him.

"You there! Open the door!" Sly demanded.

The boar guard snorted as he leaned in close toward Sly's face.

"Hmph! A little short to be a Commander, aren't you? Who are you?" the boar said as he lifted his lantern closer to the raccoon's face.

"Why I am..." Sly said, pausing for a moment till he remembered a certain bulldog's name, "Major Muggshot!"

"Huh?" the boar guard said in confusion, "Muggshot? I never heard of you.

"You dare question me?! Son, I've been a guard since you were just a squealing piglet! Wait until I tell the General about this! I hear he loves pork chops!" Sly said with a smirk on his face, liking the idea of giving the boar a scare.

The boar guard turned pale as he said in a panicked tone "Wait! I'm very sorry, Sir! I didn't recognize you! Please go right in!"

He stepped to the side, allowing Sly to enter the prison. Inside he started searching the cells, looking for his ancestor, till finally in one giant room he saw a certain male raccoon sitting in a cage that was suspended in the air. Rioichi narrowed his eyes as he saw what he believed one of the guards approach.

"Hey Rioichi Cooper! Are you okay?" Sly asked.

"You guards all seem to make very poor jokes." Rioichi replied bitterly.

"C'mon I'm not one of those bozos." Sly said.

Rioichi eyes raised his brow in surprise when he saw underneath the armor was actually a gray raccoon that looked a bit like him. He even saw the raccoon had a cane similar to his, making him wonder if he was a Cooper as well.

"I'm here bust you out! The name's Sly..." he started, but stopped when he was unsure if he should tell Rioichi that he was his descendant.

"Ah I see! A fellow ninja!" Rioichi proclaimed, "Very good! You will need to make your way to the Dragon Bridge to reach this cage. Hurry up!"

"Okay I'll be there soon. Just stay put." Sly said with a grin before taking off.

"Ha ha, very funny." the red panda raccoon groaned.

He tapped his fingers against the bar, waiting for Sly to come free him, finally after a few minutes the gray raccoon appeared. Though to his disappointment Sly accidentally stepped on a trap switch, causing the bridge to be destroyed and activate the fire breathing dragon statues, Rioichi slapped his forehead upon seeing this. Though partly to his surprise Sly was able perform the rock spire jump to get across the gaps and used his armor to deflect the fireballs. With one last jump he made it to the cage.

Rioichi stood on his feet as he said "Hmm. I do not know you, but only a true Cooper could have reached this cage."

Sly let out a laugh before replying "Ya! I didn't want to alarm you, but my full name is Sly Cooper. I'm your relative... uh from the future."

Rioichi grinned before replying "Do not worry, ninja are never alarmed. With all that has happened her lately, I believe you."

At that moment the chain to the cage began breaking.

"Now perhaps you may open the cage so that we may escape certain death?" he said as he gestured to the cage's lock.

"Right! Of course!"n Sly said before slamming his cane done on the lock, breaking it off and opening up the cage.

Sly and Rioichi made it to the top of the cage, but the chain broke causing Sly to fall off. Thinking fast Rioichi grabbed Sly's cane and use the curved part to grab the gray raccoon by his shirt collar. With a good grip on the chain he slung his descendant up to safety, once Sly had a good grip on the chain he handed him his cane and the two raccoons escaped the prison.


	8. Preparations

Chapter 8

Asami hugged Rioichi tightly as soon as he entered the hideout, tears of happiness streaking down her face as she kissed him repeatedly. Sly smiled at the sight, glad that the two was reunited while Henriette covered her eyes, playfully sticking out her tongue. The sight though made Bentley think about Penelope, he was worried ever since she mysteriously disappeared, all he could do was hope that nothing terrible happened to her. Finally he pushed these thoughts to the side to start developing a plan, he had everyone gather around to discuss the next step of the plan. Everyone attended except for Henriette who poked around at the broken arcade machine, trying to figure out what it was.

"Before we do anything we need to reclaim my restaurant. Not only will I be able to bring back honor to it by doing this, but I also can get my cane which I hidden inside the restaurant before I was arrested." Rioichi explained.

Sly agreed with his ancestor, knowing it was difficult for any Cooper to go through any plan without the use of their cane. So they knew the next step was to reclaim Rioichi's sushi restaurant. Sly and Rioichi quietly made their way through the village till finally they climbed up on rooftop of a building that had a good view of the restaurant. Sly pulled out his binocom to show Bentley that the entrance of the restaurant was heavily guarded.

"Okay Sly, it's time for Rioichi to reclaim his sushi restaurant. It looks like the front door is the only entrance. We need to get rid of those guards if we're going to get Rioichi inside." Bentley said, "However, security is on high alert since we broke him out of jail and we can't risk raising an alarm. I think this is going to require some... misdirection."

"What you mean?" Sly asked.

"I bet if you wore that samurai armor you stole, you'd be able to 'relieve' those guards at the front door." the turtle suggested.

"Right... plus I just look good in armor." Sly said with a grin, pushing back his hat a bit to emphasize on his good looks.

"Puh-lease..." Bentley said as he placed his hand against his face.

Sly was about to leave until Rioichi stopped him, showing that El Jefe was down there. The two raccoons watched as the male tiger told the boar guards that he wanted no to go in or out of the sushi restaurant. The boar guard nodded in understanding, El Jefe took a long smoke from his cigar before walking away, planning to have himself some "pork chops" for dinner if the guards failed at their task. Seeing he was gone Sly and Rioichi nodded at each other before setting the plan in motion. Sly changed into the samurai armor and walked up to the guards, telling them that they were dismissed. He smirked when he saw the guards obey his command and leave they post, making sure no one was around Sly banged on his shield three times. Rioichi ran from his hiding spot and jumped up on Sly's shield, he used it as a boost to get up to the window. He opened the windows, waved his hand to show his descendant that he made it before entering the sushi restaurant. Once he side he pulled his blue hood over his head and reached underneath a rug placed in front of the door, it was there he had hidden his cane. He found it quite amusing that none of the guards were clever enough to search underneath any of the rugs when they were looking for his cane. He quickly pulled out his binocom to confirm to Bentley he had his cane and was ready to move onto the next part of reclaiming his restaurant.

"Okay Rioichi, I guess I don't need to tell you about you're own place. Quite ingenious of you to use your sushi knives as door keys, by the way." Bentely commented.

"Bentley-san, I AM a ninja master master." Rioichi said in a stern tone as he crossed his arms.

"Right, uh... my bad." the turtle said nervously, unsure how to respond, "Anyway my scan reveals your sushi knives are still here. The bad news is the guards definitely have them. There also some security traps you've DEFINITELY never seen before."

"Benetley-san, though the bamboo forest is dense, water flows through it with out effort." the red panda raccoon replied, remembering the words his mother would say to him and the fact those were the very words he said when he was fighting Clockwerk.

"Um yeah. Just be careful not to alert the guards. Now get those knives and take your restaurant back!" Bentley replied.

Rioichi took off the binocom and focused on the first guard that had one of his knives. He silently climbed up a bamboo stalk and made his way across the room using his leaping dragon technique. As he reached the wall he glanced at the picture of him and Hitoshi after they had fought Clockwerk, he still missed his friend, wishing the shark didn't succumb to his injuries, though he pushed these thoughts to the side, knowing there was an important matter to focus on. He carefully avoided the spotlight and pickpocket the knife out of the boar guard's pocket before taking him out. He saw Bentley was telling the truth when he saw his shop was filled with traps he had never seen before, but he managed to get pass every single one of them. Finally he managed to get all his sishi knives back and reach the main power room. He pulled the switch, activating the sign's and fires before climbing out of the window. As the guards ran around, panicking over the fact the sign for the restaurant came back one, Kenta walked through the crowd. He narrowed his eyes at the sign in anger, he knew that this was the raccoon's way of saying that he was going to bring honor to the town once more.

Back at the hideout Bentley was putting together a plan for the next night, they would have to prepare in order to stop El Jefe. Murray ran around the hideout, trying to catch Henriette who had begged him to play with her. The young female raccoon laughed and giggled as she climbed up onto the shelves, out running the pink hippo. Sly had walked past the sight, heading for Rioichi who was sitting on the ground, silently meditating. The gray raccoon sat down on the ground next to his ancestor, unsure how to began his discussion. He wanted to talk to Rioichi because he knew about how Clockwerk killed Ling, he wanted to know how he felt since he himself had lost his parents to Clockwerk. Before he could say anything Rioichi opened his eyes, turning toward his descendant.

"Is there something you wish to talk about?" he asked.

"Yeah there is." Sly started, "I just want to say, I know how you feel about your mother getting killed, Clockwerk killed my parents."

Rioichi raised his brow in interest, he didn't know exactly how many Coopers Clockwerk had actually killed, but he still found it interesting that he could actually relate to his own descendant.

"In fact there's something I have to confess, there's a part of me that wants to use the time machine to save my parents." Sly confessed.

Rioichi looked up, staring at the night sky through the opening in the cave.

"Fate can be a cruel thing my young descendant, but it is what guides us and strengthens us. I still feel pain every single time I remember the night of my mother's death, but if it were not for her death I would not be who I am. In fact my daughter would probably not have been born since it was because of those events that led me to this village where I met Asami." he said in a stern tone.

Sly's eyes widen in shock, he could tell that Rioichi had thought deeply about the situation.

"I understand that the fate that fell upon your family was terrible." the red panda raccoon continued, "Though if it were not for those events you would not be the person you are right now."

Sly closed his eyes, remembering all his adventures his heists with Bentley and Murray, those heists would have never happened if his parents lived, in fact he would have never met them in the first place, he even began to wonder if he would have met Carmelita if things had went different. He understood that though what had happened was an awful thing he would never forget, but it was because of those events he became the very thief he was and proved that the Thievius Raccoonus did not make great thieves, that great thieves make the Thievius Raccoonus. He looked up at his ancestor, smiling at the advice given to him, helping him clear his thoughts.

"Thanks Rioichi." Sly said.

Rioichi placed his hand on Sly's shoulder before replying "You are welcome."

The next day Bentley had told how he did some research and discovered that El Jefe had been stopping by the Geisha House, wanting to see Madame Geisha, though he had no idea that the rhino was on vacation. He had found it fortunate that El Jefe actually didn't know what Madame Geisha look like, meaning that they could get information from the male tiger, by having someone pose as Madame Geisha. Though the only one big enough to fit Madame Geisha's kimono was none other than Murray, the only problem is that Murray didn't know how to dance like a geisha.

"Hmm Asami use to be geisha, perhaps she can help us with the problem." Bentley thought.

He went over to Asami, surprised to see her sitting next to Sly's sleeping form, gently running her fingers over his face. Henriette was asleep as well, she slept curled up next to Sly's body, clinging onto his arm. The female raccoon looked up when she saw Bentley watching them, she placed her finger over her mouth to signal for him to not disturb the sleeping raccoons.

"You know Asami you're kind of like a mother to Sly." Bentley commented.

"I guess it's natural. Rioichi told me what happened to his parent's. Quite a shame, I guess that's why he gets easily embared by my actions, he probably doesn't have many memories of his mother comforting him." Asami said as she pushed back the tuft of hair out of Sly's face.

"Well Asami I need your help, can you come over here?" the turtle asked.

The female raccoon nodded before standing up and walking over to him. Bentley told her about how Murray needed to pose as Madame Geisha in order to get information from El Jefe and Asami needed to teach him how to dance like a geisha.

"I don't know Bentley, it's been a while. I don't know if I can still dance like that." she confessed.

"Well it's the only chance we got." Bentley said.

Asami took in a deep sigh, she wanted to help free her village, so she agreed to the task, telling Bentley that after he and Murray return from getting fish for Rioichi that she will teach Murray how to dance like a geisha. Bentley was happy to her this and thanked the female raccoon. Later that day Murray and Bentley had returned from getting the fish so Rioichi could continue keeping up with his sushi making skills, the red pand raccoon examined the fish, impressed at the fact Bentley managed to catch many large ones.

"Hey Rioichi you think you can fix us some sushi as a reward?" Murray asked.

Rioichi laughed before replying "Of course my most large friend."

As Rioichi made sushi, Asami taught Murray on how to dance like a geisha. The pink hippo copied every movement of the feamle raccoon, waving the two fans in his hands in different directions, moving his feet exactly like her's.

"Keep up the pace Murray, you almost got the routine down." Asami encourged him.

Murray nodded as he continued to copy Asami's movements, after a while he finally perfected the routine. Asami congratulated him and was surprised at the fact she could still dance like a geisha even after three years Nightfall finally came once again and it was time to put the plan in action. Though before they could get information out of El Jefe they needed to steal Madame Geisha's kimono which was locked up inside of the geisha house. With the plan set Rioichi and Murray made their way through the village to the Geish House, the pink hippo waited on the ground while the male raccoon climbed up on the building rooftop. He confirmed what he had to do with Bentley first before making his way over to the Geisha House's rooftop. There he was able to find a hatch to sneak inside, though as he did this he had no idea he was being watched by a certain mechanical owl. Rioichi silently landed on the ground, taking a look around at his surroundings, remembering the night he and Asami confessed their feeling for each other and slept together. He took out his binocom and showed Bentley he had made it inside.

"Rioichi, it appears that Madame Geisha's outfit is locked inside that large container." Bentley stated, "Although you'll probably want to stay off the floor in here. No sense alerting the guards."

"Of course. Does a cat alert the rats?" Rioichi replied, a bit insulted that Bentley would assume he would actually want to alert the very guards that had been searching for him ever since his escape from prison.

"Uh, right." the turtle started, "Ok, we can get in through the top, but judging from the lock mechanism, it appears to be opened remotely. I'm going to need you to locate and activate the control devices. It looks like the doorway to the first wing is open. There's bound to be one in there and a whole load of traps. So be careful."

"Arigato, Bentley-san." Rioichi said as he nodded his head.

Swiftly he climbed up to the higher floor using the bamboo stalk, he glanced down at the guards patrolling the floors, he was still amazed that after many years they still hadn't learned to look up to search. He made his way through the Geisha House, avoiding the spotlight and laser traps that were all over the place. He also made sure not to get spotted by the rats in yellow jumpsuits and gas masks that were patrolling a few of the rooms. Finally he made it to thje control device and placed Bentley's portable satellite on it so the turtle could hack it. Only a few seconds had passed for Bentley to successfully hack the decive on open the lock on the container that held Madame Geisha's kimono. Rioichi quickly made his way back to the main room and got op top of the container, Murray dropped down from a open hatch with his belt hooked to a small cable.

"Uh Murray-san, please be careful! That cable looks rather delicate." Rioichi warned.

"Have no fear, The Murray is here!" the pink hippo replied, trying to insure him that it'll be fine.

At that moment the cable snapped, causing Murray to fall and crash into the kimono. Knowing the crash attracted the guards, Murray quickly changed into the Geisha outfit.

"Okay Murray. It looks like we're going to have to try out your disguise a bit earlier than expected. I hope you remember the routine we rehearsed!" Bentley said in the communicator.

The guards ran over to the sound of the crash, seeing Murray who had the his back turned toward them.

"You there! What's going on? Explain yourself!" the guard exclaimed.

As Murray turned toward the guards he pulled out his fan and waved it in front of his face, trying to act as girlish as possible, this caused the boar guards' mouthy to drop open.

"Konnichiwa." Murray said with a bow, "I am the most famous Madame Geisha. Please allow me to entertain you."

The guards began cheering as the music began playing, Rioichi poked his head out from hiding and raised his eyebrow in confusion. He couldn't believe that Asami actually taught Murray to dance like that. The pink hippo danced around the stage, waving around his two paper fans, watching the guards throw roses and money at him. Rioichi was trying to wrap the concept around his head, he couldn't believe he was actually glad to see the guard's actually panting and going crazy about Murray, he find it quite ironic the thing he despised is actually now working to his advantage. One guard fainted when Murray blew a kiss at him. As the performance continued on Rioichi knew he half to congratulate Asami later for being a great teacher. Finally the performance ended and all the boar guards stared with dumbfounded faces, Rioichi waved his hand in front of their faces, smirking when they didn't even notice it.

Once back at the hideout Sly couldn't help, but burst into laughter when he saw Murray in the kimono. Rioichi on the other hand had Asami meet him outside, she agreed as she followed him into the forest. The two raccoons embraced each other underneath the moonlight, taking in each other's presence.

"So how did it go?" Asami asked.

"They were so taken in by the presence of Murray-san that they didn't even see me. You're quite the teacher Asami." Rioichi replied.

The female raccoon smiled as she rested her head on her husband's shoulder. Her smiled at this and kissed her forehead, running his fingers done her back. Asami let out a giggle as she lovingly nuzzled Rioichi's chest.

"Maybe we should sleep alone tonight." Rioichi suggested,

"I like the sound of that." Asami replied before softly planting a kiss on Rioichi's lips.


	9. Geisha House

Chapter 9

Rioichi slowly opened his eyes, running his fingers through his fur. He turned his head to see Asami's sleeping form next to him. Last night's events ran through his mind, he wasn't sure why he and Asami slept together, he guessed they both did it out relief from being reunited. He slowly slipped out of the futon, not wanting to wake his wife, and put on his martial arts uniform. He walked into the main room of the hideout to see Bentley working on a small RC car. Small sparks flew as he attached wires to the small car, he was setting it up with a listening device so they could get more information from El Jefe. Rioichi looked around the hideout and noticed the absence of his descendant, turn out Sly had left to gather information on when El Jefe would be visiting Madame Geisha.

"There it's finished!" Bentley proclaimed as he examined his handy work.

"To make sure I am correct about this Bentley-san, that device should allow us to listen to that tiger?" Rioichi said.

The green turtle nodded before replying "I've set up this RC car with a microphone that will transmit recordings that my satellite set up on my wheelchair, El Jefe won't suspect I thing since I've even set up the RC car with a disguise function."

Rioichi nodded in understanding, just then Sly returned to the hideout, taking off the heavy samurai armor he had used to gather information from the guards. He set the armor to the side before walking up to Bentley and Rioichi.

"Okay I did some information digging and according to the guards El Jefe will be visiting Madame Geisha tonight." he said.

"That's perfect! The plan is now set, I'll follow El Jefe with my RC car, gathering information from him, and Murray will meet him at the Geisha House dressed up as Madame Geisha." Bentley said.

Everyone understood their parts and began preparing for the next step, Asami after she had woken up and got redressed, warned Murray about how men are toward Geisha and that he would would need to keep his guard up around El Jefe otherwise he'll find out he's not Madame Geisha the hard way. Rioichi and Sly decided they would watch by rooftop, to make sure that nothing went wrong. Finally night fall had arrived and the plan was now ready to be set in motion. Bentley made his way to a building next to a Geisha House and using a drum he hopped up on the roof top. He spotted El Jefe standing on the bridge, letting out a long stream of smoke out of his mouth before placing the cigar back in his mouth. After following him with the RC car, he discovered that El Jefe was hiding out at his statue fortress, the location of the switches to the dragon gate, the fact the guards are easily distracted by sushi, and he needed Rioichi for some reason. Seeing El Jefe approach approach the doors to the Geisha House once more, Bentley gave Murray the signal to move in. The pink hippo adjusted his wig, took in a deep breath, and reminding himself to act as feminine as possible before approaching the male tiger.

"Konnichiwa, Jefe-san." Murray said with a bow.

El Jefe grinned thinking the pink hippo to be Madame Geisha that he was waiting for.

"Greetings Madame Geisha!" he said before taking Murray's hand and kissing it.

Murray did his best not to be grossed out by the action, he noticed some scrolls on El Jefe's back. Quietly and making sure he didn't move around a lot , he grabbed the scrolls and tossed them to Bentley. The green turtle was surprised when he saw the scrolls were actually blueprints detailing about Rioichi's cane, leaving Bentley to wonder why El Jefe's boss would want Rioichi's cane. Bentley gave Murray a thumbs up for getting the scrolls and he gave one back. El Jefe finally stopped kissing Murray's hand before stepping to the side to allow the pink hippo to enter the building first. An unsure frown formed on Murray's face as he remembered what Asami said about how men are toward Geisha. Though before he entered the Geisha House the male tiger actually smacked him on the rear, Murray yelped out both in surprise and pain as he gave a fake grin, secretly getting more worried by the second. Bentley was fixing to leave till to his surprise Murray came running out of the Geisha House as fast as he could, he ran up to Bentley with a panicked look on his face.

"Murray you're suppose to be getting information from El Jefe!" Bentley exclaimed.

"I know, but Asami showed up saying she was going to do it!" Murray replied.

The green turtle's mouth dropped open in shock, he couldn't believe what he had just heard. Inside Asami was in her geisha attire, waving her paper fan in front of her face as she winked at El Jefe. She kept worrying about the tiger finding out Murray wasn't Madame Geisha, so she decided to pose as a geisha that Madame Geisha assigned to entertain El Jefe while she left to attend important matters. She danced a circle around El Jefe, waving her fan in different directions, trying to make the male tiger so attracted to her that he would tell her anything. El Jefe grinned as he took a long smoke of his cigar, watching as the female raccoon continued her seductive dance. Asami figured that it was the perfect time to start interrogating the male tiger, she brushed her tail against his face as she gave a fake seductive look.

"So what brings you to this village Jefe-san?" she asked, holding her fan in front of her face.

"I'm on important business for my boss, he guarantees me a powerful army if I do what he says." El Jefe answered with a grin.

Asami his her growing smirk behind her paper fan, figuring it would be easier than she thought to get information out of of the male tiger. She moved closer to El Jefe running her fingers along his shoulders, she was honestly was surprised that El Jefe didn't recognize her with the makeup on her face. She grabbed him by the collar of his shirt up pulled him close where there faces were mere inches apart, for the first time in her life she was thankful for the techniques she learned as a maiko.

"I'm curious Jefe-san, who is your boss? I never see him around." she said as she curled her tail around his waist.

This action shocked El Jefe so much that he actually dropped the cigar out of his mouth, causing it to fall on the floor. He thought to himself about how he had no idea that geisha could be straight forward with men. Asami traced her fingers down El Jefe's chest, she could feel the tiger's warm breath on her face, she reminded herself that she needed to get the information from El Jefe.

"I'll tell you if you give me something in return." El Jefe smirked as he forcefully grabbed Asami by the waist.

The female raccoon's eyes widened in fear, she knew exactly what was going through the male tiger's mind. She shoved him away only to get grabbed by her wrists, fear begin filling her just like on the night of her mizuage. She struggled and fought with El Jefe, trying to free herself from his iron grip. Annoyed El Jefe forcefully grabbed the female raccoon by her hair, ignoring the yell of pain she let out when he grabbed a fistful of her hair, This action caused the chopsticks in her hair to fall out, making her hair fall to it's true length. El Jefe eyes widen in shock for a few moments before finally he narrowed them in anger, he now was able to recognize Asami as Rioichi's wife. He cleaned the make up off of her face before grabbing her by the neck and lifting her off of thr ground. Asami chocked as he hands, clung onto El Jefe's arm, trying to free her neck from the male tiger's iron grip.

"Should of know you were asking too many questions. Now I will ask you a question, where is that blasted Rioichi Cooper?" El Jefe snarled.

Asami kicked her legs around as she desperately tried to get air to her lungs, she refused to tell El Jefe anything, even if it meant sacrificing her life. The male tiger snarled in anger when he the female raccoon refusing to cooperate. Just then a dark grin formed on El Jefe's face as he came up with an idea. He dropped Asami on the ground, only to take one of his swords off of his back and press it against her neck.

"If you're here that means Rioichi has to be nearby." he said.

With the sword still pressed against her neck, El Jefe guided Asami outside of the Geisha House. The male tiger's eyes scanned the area, searching for any signs of the certain male red panda raccoon.

"Cooper I have your mate here! If you don't show yourself I will do many unpleasant things to her!" El Jefe yelled.

Rioichi who was hiding in the trees clenched his fists in conflict upon hearing wanted to save Asami, but if he surrendurred the Cooper Clan would be in danger, if he didn't give himself up El Jefe would do unspeakable things to Asami. He took in a deep sigh, remebering how even his mother was met with a diificult decision and that was whether she valued her life or her family more. He thought about how she actually chose to sacrifice her own life in order to insure he would continue living. He turned toward his descendant Sly, the gray raccoon silently nodded his head, already knowing what Rioichi needed to do. Without a word Rioichi jumped down from his perch in the tree, revealling himself to El Jefe.

"Ha I knew you would show yourself Cooper if I threatened you precious mate!" El Jefe laughed as he pushed his sword more against Asami's neck.

"Rioichi don't do what he says, I'm not worth it!" Asami yelled in a pleaded tone.

This caused Asami to get slap across the face by El Jefe, telling her to be quiet. Rioichi clenched his fist, but he knew better to try anything since El Jefe had the upper hand at the moment. though he had no idea that he was being watched by none other than Kenta Le Paradox, the skunk smirked at the site of Rioichi sacrificing himself in order to save his wife. Kenta never did believe in the idea of love, his father had taught him to manipulate others rather than to love. The male skunk thought about if he was in a similar situation with his own wife, he would actually abandon her because the only reason he married her so was that she could bear his children. Now that she had given him two sons he could care less for her, the only reason he kept her around was so she could take care of the boys since he didn't want to do it himself. His green eyes studied the sight before him, curious of how it would play out. Asami's lip was quivering from the slap she had received from El Jefe, she never had intended for everything to happen, she was only trying to protect Murray. She stared at Rioichi with eyes full of regret and apology for allowing herself to get caught.

"What do you want from me El Jefe?" Rioichi yelled.

Using his free hand El Jefe grasped his cigar firmly, taking a large inhale of the smoke before exhaling the stream of smoke on Asami's face, ignoring her coughs caused by this action. He finally pointed his index toward Rioichi's cane.

"I'm under orders to claim your cane. Now if you hand it over I will release your mate, if not I don't think I need to tell you what will happen." El Jefe said in a stern tone.

Rioichi glanced down at his cane he had carved from a tree all those years ago, he didn't understand why the person El Jefe was working for wanted his cane. Though he dismissed these thoughts when he remembered the situation at hand, with a deep sigh he began to approach El Jefe. The male tiger grinned in victory as he begin slowly moving the sword away from Asami's neck. Sly tightly gripped his cane, he couldn't stand to see his ancestors suffer any longer. Without warning he jumped down from his hiding place, landing firmly on his two feet in front of the male tiger, El Jefe didn't have time to react because had already reached into his pack and threw down a smoke pellet, engulfing them in smoke. Seeing the opportunity Rioichi used his cane to knock the sword out of El Jefe's hand and pull Asami out of the male tiger's iron grip. The three raccoons began running as quickly as possible, seeing El Jefe call up the guards. As they ran Rioichi reached into his pack, pulling out a few ninja stars, he quickly threw the ninja stars at three boar guards, killing them upon contact. Some crane guards on the roof loaded their arch bows and fired arrows at them. Though the three raccoons managed to swiftly dodge each and every arrow.

Sly's brown eyes managed to spot the entrance of the hideout quickly approaching, though he knew they couldn't enter it otherwise the guards would see where they have been hiding. Thinking fast he turned on his communicator ear piece.

"Hey Bentley think you can help us out?" he asked.

"Already got it covered Sly." the green turtle said as he activated the RC helicopter.

He flew the small helicopter over the three fleeing raccoons and dropped smoke bombs around their area. The guards came to a screeching halt when they saw the area in front of them covered in thick smoke. They looked around for the three raccoons they were pursuing, but were unable to see anything through the thick smoke, allowing the three raccoons to successfully escape into the hideout. Asami let out a sigh of relief, glad to be back in the safety of the hideout once more. Murray who had fallen asleep at the table opened his eyes with a snort, but quickly stodd up when he saw Sly and the others were back.

"Asami ah great your okay. I was worried when you had volunteered to take my place, but it looks like you guys managed to get out alright!" Murray said as he tightly hugged Asami

"It was a very close one Murray-san, El Jefe managed to eventually recognize me and used me to try to capture Rioichi. Though thankfully Sly manged to step in when he did and help save me." Asami explained.

"That's true, but I still don't know why El Jefe needed Rioichi's cane." Sly said.

"Actually I can answer that. "Bentley started as he entered the hideout, "These blueprints Murray manged to get from El Jefe detail some sort of plan involving the Cooper Clan's canes. Whoever is behind all this is wanting to gather all of the canes for an unknown purpose."

Kenta Le Paradox walked down the hallways of his descendant's blimp, impressed with the technology before him. He entered the main room of the blimp to see a female pink mouse with blond hair, wearing a red bandanna black gloves and shoes, orange glasses, and a yellow jumpsuit. She would occasionally glanced at some blue prints as she worked hard on building an unknown machine.

"Ah Penelope I see your almost done with the project I asked you to build." Cyrille Le Paradox said as he approached the female mouse.

Penelope sat up, dusting off her yellow jumpsuit, she adjusted her glasses before turning toward the male skunk.

"Yes, but remember you need at least five power sources from different time eras in order to activate the machine." she explained.

Cyrille grinned, placing his hand underneath Penelope's chin, causing the female mouse to blush at this, she had to admit that the skunk was quite the charmer. It was because of his charming ways that she willingly joined him, though if she encounters Bentley she didn't want to break his heart so she would tell him that she did it for the both of them. Kenta couldn't help, but snicker when he saw the female mouse was actually charmed when she was actually a fool, the one thing the Le Paradox Clan was good at was manipulating others.

"Very good Penelope, you have a bright future, but remember do not fail me or you might find yourself stranded in time." Cyrille said.

Penelope bit her lip nervously as she slowly nodded her head, with that Cyrille let go of her chin to allow her to finish completing the project. When he turned he spotted his Japanese ancestor waiting for him, with a grin he walked up to him.

"So everything is going to plan no?" he asked as he tapped his fingers together.

"Yes, El Jefe guarantees that he will deliver you Rioichi's cane soon. Though I suggested to send in your army just in case the fool fails." Kenta replied.

Cyrille nodded as he turned away from his ancestor, he glanced at the machine Penelope was building.

"Soon with the five Cooper canes I will be able to power the machine and then my revenge will be complete." he said with grin before letting out a small laugh, everything was falling into place for him.


	10. The Cooper Vault

Chapter 10

Rioichi scaled his way across one of the rooftops of the village building, the time for the main battle against El Jefe was getting close, but he had to do one last thing first before they could do that. He jumped down from one of the rooftops and made his way inside the fishing cave. Once inside he took a long look around studying the new traps that were scattered among the cave and the rats guards in yellow jumpsuits and gas masks. Making sure he doesn't get seen by the guards he hid in the shadows before pulling out his binocom to get further instructions from Bentley.

"Okay Rioichi, we need to collect samples from those strange plants growing high on the cave walls." Bentley stated, "Commonly known as the Spiky Wall Climber, it secretes a mild toxin we can use to make sushi rolls that will put any guard to sleep instantly. Just be careful not to be overcome yourself."

"Bentley-san, did I not explain." Rioichi sighed, tired of the green turtle thinking he would have trouble completing the task and would actually inhale the toxins.

"You're a Ninja Master. I know, I know!" Bentley replied quickly.

"Hai! Now allow me to show you how it's done." the raccoon said with a smirk.

"Well, now at least I know where Sly get it from. Bentley commented, noticing the similarities of personality between Sly and his ancestor.

With that said Rioichi made his way deeper into the caves, he silently took out the ray guards in the area. avoiding the mammoth lightning bugs which were huge bugs that could give anyone a nasty shock, he finally reached the first poisonous plant up on the wall. He held his breath as he used his cane to strike the blossom. He watched as the plant shook before opening up, releasing toxic gas and revealing it's seed. Rioichi used his cane to grab the seed and used his ninjato sword the separate the seed from the plant's vines. After he got the seed he made his way over to the second plant and repeated the process, feeling that two seeds were enough to knock out all of the boards guards that were guarding the dragon gate, he returned to the hideout. The gang began preparing for the big battle to take down El Jefe, Rioichi had prepared the sushi rolls, Asami was assigned to sneak it to the guards, Bentley gathered up the supplies needed, and Sly would open the Dragon Gate for the others. Finally it was time and everyone was prepared, Asami put the first part of the plan in motion.

She walked up to the guards, holding the tray of spiked sushi rolls. She silently smiled as she offered the sushi to the board guards. At first the boar guards were suspicious of the female raccoon standing before them, but they quickly pushed all those thoughts away when they saw the tray she was holding had sushi on it. Before Asami could even blink the boar guards had scarfed down all of the sushi, she grinned as she watched the guards stumble around a bit before passing out on the ground. Using the binocom that Bentley had given her she told Sly that the coast was clear before hiding away to avoid getting captured again. Sly grinned at this, glad to finally get in on the action. Quietly he approached the unconscious boar guards and dug around their pockets until he found the skeleton key. Quickly he unlocked the locks that held the wheel switches to open the dragon statues' mouths in place. He activated the switches to open up the dragons' mouths, causing fireballs to be blasted at him, though the male raccoon was able to easily deflect the fireballs using his shield from the samurai armor. The fireballs flew back inside the dragons' mouths, destroying the locks, and successfully opening up the dragon gate.

Seeing the dragon gate was now open Rioichi, Sly, Murray, and Bentley all walked through the gate, beginning their long walk to the palace El Jefe was hiding out in. It was a long walk, but they managed to reach the palace, they were fixing to take another step until they felt the ground begin to rumble. To everyone's shock a huge blimp began to rise up, leaving them speechless, they knew that blimp did not belong there. Cyrille Le Paradox glanced down at them from his window, snarling at the fact he had been followed through time. Penelope stood next to him with her head pressed up against the window, her brown eyes staring down at a certain green turtle. A small frown formed on her face when she stared at the Cooper Gang, a part of her wondering if she did the right thing by betraying them. Deciding to ignore the blimp for now the gang ran to the palace's bridge, only to find El Jefe there, waiting for them.

"Ha ha ha! End of the line, Cooper!" he said before taking a long smoke of his cigar.

He order the rat guards to get the gang while he closed up the gate. Sly, Bentley, and Murray got in fighting positions while Rioichi got ready to do his part.

"Ok, you all know what to do. Time to kick some butt!" Bentley said.

"My favorite time of the day!" Murray proclaimed as he punched his knuckle into the palm of his head.

"Let's do this!" Sly said with a grin.

The trio began instantly fighting the rats, knocking them unconscious and even sending some of them flying off of the bridge. while this brawl was taking place Rioichi made his way under the bridge, using his leaping dragon technique to leap from rock spire to rock spire. Finally he managed to make it to the wheel switch that controlled the bridge's gate. Using all his strength he ran as fast as he could on the wheel, slowly lowering the bridge's gate. After a few minutes the gate opened up, allowing the gang to access the palace. Rioichi climbed up on the bridge to see all of the rat guards lying unconscious in a pile. Sly turned toward his ancestor and winked at him, silently telling him that he had his back. Rioichi grinned before they allowing continued on the palace, though none of them had any idea El Jefe was hiding on top of the gate's archway. When he say Rioichi come into view the male tiger jumped on top of the male raccoon and grabbed him by the neck. Riochi chocked and struggled as El Jefe held him in the air by his neck, without a word El Jefe grabbed a hold of Rioichi's cane and pulled it off of his back.

"Ha it's mine!" El Jefe said with a grin before he tossed Rioichi to the side.

The red panda raccoon hit the ground, his body tumbling for a bit before landing infront of Sly and the gang. quickly he sat up, reaching out his hand in panic.

"My cane!" Rioichi exclaimed.

El Jefe placed the cane on his back before pulling out his two swords. He clanged them together, setting them on fire before running across the wooden bridge, setting it ablaze. When he reached the other side he stabbed both of his swords into the ground, the force of it causing the fiery bridge to collapse, separating him from the Cooper gang. He turned toward Sly and the other's pulling out Rioichi's cane once more to taunt them.

"Sorry Cooper you lose! I need to deliver this puny stick to a new owner!" El Jefe said before walking away.

"No! El Jefe's getting away!" Bentley yelled.

Sly clenched his teeth in anger, he saw how defeated Rioichi looked from allowing El Jefe to easily get the jump on him and steal away his cane. Sly knew what he had to do next.

"Don't worry, Rioichi. Watch after these two. I'm going to kick some tiger tail and get your cane back!" he insured his ancestor.

Without another word Sly used the spire jump to make his way across what was left of the fiery bridge and went after El Jefe. everything was silent until Rioichi's ear twitched to the sound of running, he turned around to see Asami and Henriette running to him. the two female raccoons embraced him, saying about how they grew worried when they saw the blimp in the sky. Rioichi's ears flattened against his head, he wasn't sure if he had the heart to tell his family that his cane was stolen. Back with Sly he managed to make it to the foot of a huge statue of El Jefe where the tiger himself awaited.

"Ha ha ha! Hey Cooper, what do you think of my statue?" El Jefe said as he petted a small pigeon.

"Heh! It looks like a real pigeon magnet." Sly smirked.

This caused the male tiger to snarl in anger and swat away the pigeon he was petting before.

"Bah! I hope you can fly like a pigeon, Cooper. Otherwise you'll never catch me!" El Jefe said before jumping and a rope and cutting it with his sword, allowing it to lift him up to the top of his statue.

"We'll see about that!" Sly yelled at him.

With a sigh he held his cane in his mouth and began the long climb. He kept a firm grip and firm footing as he climb up the statue though it became difficult when it began raining, at times his foot would slip, almost causing him to fall to death. Though before he climb up further he noticed someone watching him, his blood ran cold when he saw familiar red eyes full of hate that filled his nightmares for many years, he had come face to face with Clockwerk. Sly couldn't move his body, he knew there was a possibility that he would ran into Clockwerk since they went into the past, back when he was still alive, but the sight of seeing the deadly ancient owl that killed his father still terrified him. Clockwerk stared at sly his red eyes glaring at the frightened raccoon, noticing how his features were similar to Rioichi's, making him wonder if the raccoon was a Cooper as well. Though due to Sly focusing on Clockwerk his grip slipped from it's hold, causing him to start plummeted to the ground. He tried to pull out his paraglider, but it's string to open it up refused to budge. Before he could hit the ground he found himself snatched up in the talons of none other than Clockwerk.

The mechanical owl flew up higher and higher, holding the raccoon firmly in his talons, Sly clenched his teeth together, fearing his life was going to end right there. Though to his shock Clockwerk landed on a platform and released him from his talons, Sly stared up at the mechanical owl, confused on why he had saved his life.

"Why did you save me?" Sly asked in a confused tone.

Clockwerk stared down at Sly, glaring at him with his red glowing eyes.

"You'd think I would allow a Cooper to be killed by something or someone other than I?" he said.

The gray raccoon nearly froze in fear at the fact the ancient bird from his ancestor's past manged to piece together that he was a Cooper. He thought for sure that Clockwerk was going to seize the opportunity to kill him right then and there, but to his surprise Clockwerk turned away from him.

"I will let you live for now, but I insure you the next time we meet Cooper I will kill you." he said before flying off.

Sly stared in bewilderment, it was the second time in his life that Clockwerk actually allowed him to live,though he knew the first time would ironically be the next time for Clockwerk, the night his father was killed. Deciding not to think about what had happened for now, he climbed up what little remained of the statute and reached the top. Now that he could see the statue more clearly he stared at it with an odd face, wondering how big El Jefe's big ego is, Though he was snapped out of these thoughts when he heard the tiger himself speak.

"A magnificent likeness isn't it, Cooper? Almost as handsome as the real thing!" El Jefe said.

"Yeah, it looks almost big enough to contain your over-inflated ego." Sly smirked.

El Jefe took a long smoke of his cigar and said "Take a nice, long look. I want you to remember the one who crushed you!"

He crushed his cigar into the palm of his hand, ignoring the fact the lit cigar was burning his hand as he crushed it.

"Looks to me you've got no where left to run, El Jefe. Ready to face me now?" Sly replied.

"Ha ha ha! Sticking up for the family, eh Cooper? Too bad you'll never see any of them again!" the tiger taunted.

Sly didn't want to admit, but those words actually pained him because they were true. This was the first time in his life ever since Clockwerk killed his parents that he has been able to actually be with his biological family, but when his business there was done he would have to return to the present and never see his ancestors again. He clenched his teeth in anger when El Jefe's laughter filled the air.

"Oh Cooper, you've climbed so high and now you're gonna fall!" he said before jumping down on a platform.

Sly chased after El Jefe, dodging the fireballs the tiger launched. He chased him up on a higher platform where he found the tiger meditating.

"You know something, Cooper? You're actually starting to annoy me." El Jefe snarled.

"Oh, don't worry. I have that affect on all cowardly crime lords." Sly said with his arms crossed.

The male tiger snarled at the raccoon's words, especially when Sly taunted him by saying the El Jefe means "Big Baby" in Spanish. El Jefe pulled out his two swords once more and the battle began with Sly. He launched fire blasts and electricity attacks at the raccoon, but much to his misfortune Sly managed to counter each of the attacks. Whenever he felt like he was losing he would ran away from Sly over to a different platform but no matter what he did Sly was always able to catch up with him. Finally after a long struggle Sly manged to land the finishing blow, knocking him unconscious. Though before he could grab Rioichi's cane a stink bomb grenade was dropped at his feet, thinking fast he jumped off of the platform, clinging on the edge to avoid falling to his death. The blimp flew above the platform, two rat guards dropped down from it and grabbed Rioichi's cane. The rat guards quickly scurried back inside the blimp, but one of them dropped a sheriff's badge. Sly managed to stop the badge from rolling off the platform with his foot once he got up there. He stared up at the blimp staring at the shadowy figure of a certain skunk before the blimp vanished into a flash of light.

Sly returned to the gang with his head hung low, confessing how the person behind the entire mess had escaped with Rioichi's cane. Bentley insured everyone that they would get the cane back no matter what and figure out who is behind the entire mess. Back at the hideout the communicator got a call from Dimitri telling the gang that their next location was the Wild West where they must help Tennessee Kid Cooper. Rioichi was a bit shocked that he actually had a descendant that lived in a land he had never heard of, due to the fact America didn't exist yet. After Sly, Murray, and Bentley left to help Tennessee Kid Coop to Rioichi's surprise the van returned shortly with Bentley claiming he needed his help, it was there he met his three ancestors and his descendant, leaving him shocked he got to meet the very people he read about. He successfully managed to to retrieve his cane along with his ancestor's from the ice age before returning back to his timeline. Kenta was so enraged at this that he forced his twins to train harder, wanting one of the to finally make the Le Paradox line successfully. Asami announced to Rioichi that she was pregnant with their second child, Henriette was thrilled at the idea of having a sibling. Rioichi smiled at this, feeling the time travel experience has made him stronger.

1 Year Later

Rioichi placed his cane in the door that had the Cooper cane symbol on it, watching as the vault opened up. He smiled at his daughter, wife, and infant son. He had wanted to show his family the legendary Cooper vault. Asami stared around in wonder, cradling her son who was starting to become a bit fussy. Henriette giggled as she ran around the vault, saying how when she get older she was going to place her things in the Cooper vault as well.

"This is amazing Rioichi." Asami said as Rioichi placed his treasures and drawings next to his mother's section of the vault.

"Yes and one day I hope our children will have treasures of our thier to place in the vault." Rioichi said as he stroked his son's head.

Rioichi was found of his son because the infant raccoon was born with white fur, just like Ling's. The infant snuggled into his mother's arms, his father's stroke lulling him to sleep.

"Rioichi your mother would have been proud." Asami said with a smile.

The male red panda raccoon turned toward the section of the vault that belonged to his mother's a smile crept on his feace as he stared at an ink drawing of her.

"Yes she would." he said with a smile, knowing that indeed his mother would be proud.

He knew that his tale would be passed down through the generations, he even liked the thought of a young Tennesse Kid and a young Sly reading about his tale. Though this would only be one of the many Tales of the Cooper Clan.

The End


End file.
